Megan Leslie's flight to Edmonton meeting cost 6 times more than fellow MP

A Nova Scotia MP's flight to Alberta for a caucus meeting with fellow New Democrats meant a hefty price for taxpayers.

Megan Leslie, who represents the Halifax riding, expensed $6,365.83 for a trip from Ottawa to Edmonton, then back to Halifax.

Her colleague, Robert Chisholm, flew return from Halifax to Edmonton for one-sixth of the price — $1,044.84.

"I will admit I did fly business class also I know that my return flight was booked last minute because I wasn't sure when I was going to be able to return due to meetings I was having in Edmonton," Leslie said Tuesday.

She thinks the cost of her flight may have skyrocketed because it was a multi-city trip, meaning Leslie didn't fly back into the same city she departed from. She flew to Edmonton from Ottawa because she thought flying to Halifax to catch a flight west didn't make sense.

Leslie says she'll think long and hard about doing that again, if that's what drove up the price.

"I strive to be diligent with my expenses and I aim to live up to the trust you have put in me as your representative in Parliament," Leslie wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday night.

"To ensure that this doesn't happen again, I am putting in place procedures in my office to make sure I explicitly know the cost of each flight, and if it is too expensive, we'll have to change my travel plans."

The NDP caucus gathered in Edmonton in September to plan for the upcoming session of the House of Commons. Liberal MPs gathered in Edmonton three weeks prior, for a similar gathering.

The four Liberal MPs who represent Nova Scotia in Ottawa all flew to Edmonton from Halifax or Sydney. Two had additional stopovers in Calgary and Winnipeg but the combined price for their flights was $7,491 — only $1,125.17 more than the cost of Leslie's one direct flight.