Deputy Tourism Minister Jenna Hurley, a former adviser to Prime Minister Blaine Higgs, earned 77,710 in 2023 due to stays in luxury hotels during private trips to London and Paris and a personal trip from Quispamsis to Fredericton. Saved spending dollars.
This is the highest amount ever billed this year by a senior official in the New Brunswick government, including the premier and ministers, according to online departmental expense reports.
New Brunswick releases information on a quarterly basis regarding travel, subsistence, car allowances, lodging and other expenses paid to ministers and government officials.
It says it is “an effort to improve transparency and accountability and strengthen proactive information disclosure.”
In 2023, the highest amount requested by an elected official in a calendar year was Higgs’ $52,522. This includes the $10,999 he spent on a trip to Europe last May, which was highlighted in Higgs’ speech at the World Hydrogen Summit in the Netherlands.
However, Mr Hurley’s costs claim was nearly 50% higher and the Prime Minister’s accusations were ignored.
Hurley, a former small adventure business owner and travel blogger, has been New Brunswick’s deputy minister of tourism since 2020.
Hotel Lumen is located less than 1 km from the Louvre Museum in downtown Paris. New Brunswick tourism officials spent half of an eight-day trip to Europe last September at the 39-room hotel, at an estimated cost of $600 per night per room. (Hotel Lumen)
She was hired by Mr Higgs in 2019 on a two-year consulting contract, working for the tourism board and reporting directly to Mr Higgs on potential changes.
One immediate change was Hawley’s firing of former deputy minister Françoise Roy a month after he started the job. Ten months later, Harley is working at Roy’s old job.
“I’m proud of the way she works with the people in the department,” Higgs said in defense of Hurley’s first hire before Congress in 2019.
“I’m proud of the way she works with the Minister, because we can get things done by thinking differently. I’m proud that she’s part of the team. I’m proud of that.
According to the report, in 2023, Hurley traveled several times within Canada and abroad on government business.
The expense report contained little information about the purpose of the trip, and Mr. Hurley was not made available for an interview. But her report says she spent $21,488 on hotels in multiple locations, including Banff, Quebec City and North Carolina.
Jena Hurley charged taxpayers $154.75 for paying to go on a public tour of the Palace of Versailles during a visit to Europe. (Palace of Versailles)
His most expensive trip, an eight-day trip to Europe last September, was an effort to increase international tourist interest in New Brunswick, according to information provided by the province.
The purpose is also to collect information on important tourist destinations recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
“The purpose of the mission was to discuss opportunities to visit New Brunswick with international travel agents,” Bruce McFarlane, New Brunswick’s senior director of media relations, wrote in response to a request for information about the trip. .
“The mission also included on-site visits and meetings at UNESCO properties and museums, including four nights in London and four nights in Paris.”
Mr MacFarlane said four representatives from the Department of Tourism, including Mr Hurley and Minister Tammy Scott-Wallace, traveled to Europe.
New Brunswick taxpayers funded a number of activities for the province’s tourism authority, including a ride on the London Eye during an eight-day trip to London and Paris last September. (Hannah McKay/Reuters)
The group stayed at the Trafalgar St. James Hotel in London and then moved to the Hotel Lumen in Paris.
The hotel costs about $800 and $600 a night, respectively, according to rates advertised online and expense reports filed by both Scott Wallace and Hurley.
Hurley’s expenses also included receipts from visits to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, unspecified British Museum, the London Eye and the Palace of Versailles.
Neither the minister nor the deputy minister appears to have been charged any fees for the eight-day business meeting. Hurley’s expenses ended up totaling $12,328, while Scott Wallace’s bill totaled his $10,199.
Liberal Party deputy leader and opposition tourism critic Isabelle Thériault said she was surprised to hear about the trip.
Last September, coincidentally, two weeks after Mr. Hurley returned from Paris, the Ministry of Tourism appeared before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee and Mr. Thériault spoke about what the departments are doing to promote New Brunswick in Europe. I asked her about the initiative.
Opposition tourism critic Liberal MLA Isabelle Thériault said it was strange that department officials didn’t mention the European trip when asked about promotions in New Brunswick. (Jacques Poitra/CBC)
There was no mention of travel.
“If I had known, I would have asked about it,” Tello said.
“If they had just come back from those parts of Europe, why didn’t they say to me, ‘We went there to study how to bring people in from those parts?'” They chose not to say. ”
Harley’s biggest expense in 2023 wasn’t travel-related. After her return from Europe, she sold her home in Quispamsis and moved to Fredericton, ending her four-year commuting life.
This transfer resulted in taxpayers incurring additional relocation costs of $19,321.17.
That included $15,000 in real estate commissions paid on homes sold by Hurley, $3,550.67 in moving company fees and $770.50 in attorney fees.
According to the New Brunswick government’s relocation policy, relocation costs for existing employees are allowed at the discretion of the department’s assistant minister “if the employee is relocating.”
Hurley didn’t have to transfer to a new job and didn’t take a loss on selling his home, which can add to moving costs.
The home sold last October for $405,000, well above the list price of $324,900, according to property records.
Despite this, Ms MacFarlane said it had been determined that Ms Hurley was indeed entitled to have her moving costs covered, and stressed that she would not approve her own claim. He did not say who did it.
“As outlined in the relocation policy, the deputy chief may not approve his or her own relocation costs under any circumstances,” McFarlane wrote.
“Another designated member approved the relocation costs within the policy directive. I cannot speak to specific instances, but the relocation costs were within the policy.”
