Mount Pearl Mayor Randy Simms says travel spending on his council is reasonable, and is sometimes cost-shared. (CBC)

The City of Mount Pearl may have only a quarter of the population of neighbouring St. John's, but spends significantly more on travel, figures show.

For the past three years, Mount Pearl councillors have billed an average of $7,761 per year. By comparison, St. John's councillors have billed about $2,740 each over the same period.

St. John's Mayor Dennis O'Keefe was surprised to learn the smaller council has significantly higher bills.

"Given the fact we are involved in so many enterprises, ranging from promoting cruise ships coming into the city and the world energy cities partnership, I would have logically assumed that our travel expenses would be much higher than those in the City of Mount Pearl," O'Keefe said.

CBC News obtained spending records for the two councils for the 2006, 2007 and 2008 years. There are 11 councillors in St. John's, including the mayor and deputy mayor, while Mount Pearl has seven.

Even with a smaller number of councillors, Mount Pearl has spent $162,989 on travel, well ahead of the $97,059 that St. John's councillors have spent.

A key difference is that St. John's does not allow councillors to spend any money on professional development and training. Mount Pearl, by contrast, allows councillors to spend up to $6,000 each on that line item, although Mayor Randy Simms said they rarely use the full amount.

"If we're going to Las Vegas or we're going to Denver, or something like that, as a general rule they're going as part of a partnership with an organization like ACOA who helps pay a portion of the cost," Simms said.

"We're doing it primarily for economic development purposes but also for professional development purposes as well. You hope the person is bringing back new knowledge, new ideas, and hopefully can do their job better."

The travel policy allowed Coun. Paul Lane to attend what was described as an athletic business conference in Orlando in 2007. Coun. Lucy Stoyles attended a similar conference in Las Vegas 2006, as well as a "power conference for women" in Toronto. Last year, Stoyles also travelled to conferences in New York and Denver, and this year attended conferences in Houston and Ontario.

Simms noted that Mount Pearl's travel costs also reflect the city's commitments to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.