Scott Stinson: Doug Ford blasts own MPPs over ‘unacceptable’ Toronto hotel stays

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Buffeted by another spending controversy that threatens to undermine his image as a politician who will carefully guard the public purse, Doug Ford on Thursday decried the members of his own caucus who collectively spent more than $100,000 on Toronto hotel rooms despite representing Toronto-area ridings.

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“Unacceptable,” the premier said of the 16 Progressive Conservative MPPs who took advantage of a policy that allows local members to expense hotel stays under “special or unusual circumstances” such as a weather event or an overnight session of the legislature.

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Ford, speaking for the first time on the hotel expenses since they were revealed in media reports this week, gave his one-word answer in response to a question on whether he had been given any explanation on the hotel stays.

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“I’ll leave it at that,” he said at a press conference in Windsor to announce the ground-breaking of a new hospital in the region, but then he didn’t leave it at that.

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“Totally unacceptable, and I’ve told them, ‘You are paying back every single penny,’” Ford said. “That’s not the way we operate.”

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The premier indicated two Windsor-area MPPs who had accompanied him to the hospital announcement would testify that when he spoke to caucus about the hotel-expense controversy, “You literally had to pull me off the roof.” 

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“We don’t,” he said, not finishing the thought. “Anyways,” he said. “Unacceptable.”

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As evidence of how seriously Ford and his team are taking the hotel room story, which was highlighted by Tourism Minister Stan Cho billing more than $16,000 in hotel stays even though his Willowdale riding is in Toronto and on the same subway line as Queen’s Park, his remarks at the Windsor event were a full campaign-style speech that highlighted his government’s various investments in infrastructure and the economy. 

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At points in the speech he stopped to jokingly apologize to the audience for going off topic of the Windsor hospital, saying his staff had “put all this other stuff” into his prepared comments. 

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The Ford government said on Wednesday it would move to eliminate the “special circumstances” hotel provision from the provincial housing-allowance policy, but opposition politicians have said they want the PCs to release the details of the Toronto hotel charges that were billed to the public.

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(The hotel room expenses, contained in public-disclosure records, only indicate the total amount spent and not the individual date, cost, or length of a stay.)

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The NDP launched a website on Wednesday that details the hotel room expenses and allows visitors to see how far each of the involved MPPs’ ridings are from Queen’s Park. 

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The hotel revelations come after a spring sitting at the legislature that was dominated in its later stages by questions about the government’s brief, troubled purchase of a used Bombardier jet for the premier’s travels.

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The private plane, bought for just under $30 million, was sold back to Bombardier within days after significant public blowback. The Ford government sold it to the company for the same price, but taxpayers had to cover about $200,000 in fees related to the transactions.

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But while questions about the “gravy plane” were a regular feature at Queen’s Park in the spring, opposition MPPs have little opportunity to press the government about the hotel expenses. The provincial legislature is on an extended summer break that is scheduled to last until late October.

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