{"id":133142,"date":"2026-07-17T13:25:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T13:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/133142\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T13:25:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T13:25:10","slug":"ontario-pc-mpps-needed-hotel-rooms-to-rest-the-poor-babies-only-get-five-months-of-summer-vacation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/133142\/","title":{"rendered":"Ontario PC MPPs needed hotel rooms to rest. The poor babies only get five months of summer vacation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

The Doug Ford of old would have never tolerated such indulgences as MPPs billing taxpayers for hotel rooms despite living within commuting distance, writes Robyn Urback.Arlyn McAdorey\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Can we just try to empathize with poor Tourism Minister Stan Cho, who is currently enjoying his five-month summer break from the provincial legislature, while earning $232,340 annually thanks to a pay bump legislators gave themselves last year? <\/p>\n

He had to spend 30 whole days at Queen\u2019s Park during the spring session, and 28 days during the fall session, which means this beleaguered PC MPP \u2013 along with all the others \u2013 had to go to and from work nearly 60 times! Fortunately for Mr. Cho, he doesn\u2019t live too far from the legislature: fewer than six kilometres by car, or seven subway stops. And while Mr. Cho is entitled to his own car and driver as a cabinet minister, who knows \u2013 maybe it\u2019s stressful browsing luxury villas to spend his extended break at while someone else drives him home. <\/p>\n

If so, Mr. Cho was probably tired from one of his dozens of work days this session; it\u2019s very hard to be part of a governing majority that needs to constantly think of gimmicks to distract from the various actual problems plaguing the province. And with such weak opposition parties, why wouldn\u2019t he indulge in a little taxpayer bounty \u2013 it\u2019s not like he\u2019s buying himself a luxury jet, after all \u2013 and rest his head in a hotel for a night, or maybe 30? How many Toronto hotel rooms can you get for $11,700, which is roughly what Mr. Cho spent<\/a> in 2025-2026, anyway?<\/p>\n

Mr. Cho, who has spent more than $16,000 of taxpayers\u2019 dollars on hotel rooms since 2023, was not the only one to fear that they might expire if they had to make the arduous journey past a few major intersections. As first reported by The Trillium<\/a>, a handful of other Toronto-area MPPs have billed taxpayers for hotel rooms despite living within commuting distance. Brampton East MPP Hardeep Grewal expensed almost $20,000 in hotels since 2023. Brampton Centre MPP Charmaine Williams spent around $16,000 over the past three years. Mississauga-Streetsville MPP Nina Tangri expensed $13,568.12. In total, more than a dozen Toronto-area MPPs spent more than $100,000 of taxpayer money on hotels in just the past few years.<\/p>\n

These MPPs were able to bill for rooms under a \u201cspecial circumstance\u201d provision that makes allowances for accommodations in extraordinary scenarios, such as severe snowstorms. Initially, the Premier\u2019s office responded to the reports by saying that \u201cany expenses incurred that did not meet the spirit of the rules will be reimbursed to the legislature in full,\u201d but then followed up by saying it would eliminate the provision altogether. Because poor Mr. Cho et al. should not be punished for abusing the allowance \u2013 it\u2019s the rule that was wrong! Please, your honour: Don\u2019t punish me for stealing that laptop. It was the store\u2019s fault for not expressly telling me that it wasn\u2019t mine to take. <\/p>\n

Ford promises MPPs will pay back \u2018every single penny\u2019 for hotel expenses as his office cuts staff<\/a><\/p>\n

The Doug Ford of old would have never tolerated these sorts of indulgences. The guy who promised to \u201cstop the gravy train,\u201d and said \u201cthe party with the taxpayers\u2019 money is over,\u201d would have sent these guys packing \u2013 certainly from cabinet where applicable, and maybe from caucus.<\/p>\n

But things change when you\u2019ve spent eight years getting everything you want, with only the most anemic of opposition in the legislature. Animals with no natural predators become flabby and complacent. They over-indulge. They buy private jets. They expense hotel rooms. They change freedom-of-information request rules so they are less accountable to the public, because the opposition parties are busy with their own business, and the media have too many different things to cover. <\/p>\n

The problem for Mr. Ford, however, is that when too many of these scandals start piling up, the public begins to realize that the party with the taxpayers\u2019 money is not, in fact, over, but instead has been moved to the 14th floor of the Park Hyatt on Bloor St. in Toronto. <\/p>\n

The Premier knows this one looks particularly bad. On Thursday, a conveniently timed memo sent to Premier\u2019s Office staff and government chiefs of staff leaked out, announcing a hiring freeze in Mr. Ford\u2019s office and the elimination of 10 positions, which is expected to save more than $1-million annually. According to the memo, the government \u201ctakes very seriously our responsibility to treat taxpayers with respect,\u201d noting that it has \u201cprudently managed the size of the Ontario Public Service.\u201d It also says the Premier\u2019s Office will be working with certain ministries \u201cto encourage comparable savings\u201d and that chiefs are encouraged \u201cto put their hand up if they believe they can achieve savings.\u201d <\/p>\n

No one will be available to tally up those raised hands, however, until the legislature resumes in another 14 weeks. Hopefully the Progressive Conservative caucus is well-rested by then. Would they like to see a pillow menu?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: The Doug Ford of old would have never tolerated such indulgences as MPPs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,3118,135,3119],"class_list":["post-133142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-canada","tag-column","tag-dei","tag-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}