Neil Malik
Was Doug Ford’s plan for a private jet actually a bad idea?
Was Doug Ford’s plan for a private jet actually a bad idea?
Courtesy of Bombardier
The Topline
- Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced he was reversing the province’s decision to buy a $28.9-million used private jet for government use.
- The plane, a 2016 Bombardier Challenger 650, was to be used primarily for Ford’s travel around the province and visits to the U.S. “to help make the case against President Trump’s tariffs” according to a statement from the premier’s office.
- Critics of the purchase slammed the announcement, with NDP Leader Marit Stiles calling it a “gravy plane.”
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The politics of a bad look
For elected officials, everything runs on taxpayer dollars. Each expense is at risk of being scrutinized, criticized, and politicized.
If you’re sloppy, you become famous for all the wrong reasons.
Just ask Bev Oda. The former federal cabinet minister famously apologized for switching hotels from her conference hotel to London’s famous Savoy Hotel, where she enjoyed $16 orange juice and a private chauffeur shuffling her back and forth to the original hotel and conference location.
Or former senator Nancy Ruth, who described her in-flight business class breakfast as “cold camembert and broken crackers” after the auditor general flagged her for expensing a hot meal instead of eating what was already served on her flights between Ottawa and Toronto.
Which brings us to the newest member of the Canadian Hall of Fame of bad looks: Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who thought buying a private jet for the premier’s use would be no big deal to Ontario taxpayers.
The Ontario economy is looking rough these days. TD’s economic forecast for the province isn’t great. The province’s budget projects a $13.8-billion deficit for the next fiscal year. A whopping 67,000 jobs were lost in January alone.
Meanwhile, the Ford government is out shopping for a private jet. How did nobody in the premier’s office raise their hand to say, “Maybe this isn’t the best time?”
The Ontario PC Party heavily promotes a platform of “keeping costs down” for the province. Those three words are frequently used in all government and party talking points.
A mix of flying on commercial and charter flights will almost always keep costs down compared with buying and operating a private luxury jet.
Ford responded to questions about the decision to cancel the purchase by suggesting he’s being unfairly scrutinized, pointing out the federal and Quebec governments also own and operate their own fleets of private aircraft.
Yeah, but — if your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?
Ultimately, the government tried to justify the purchase as a way of being more efficient.
But timing matters. And so voters and critics rightfully called out a government that was asking people to tighten their belts while carving out exceptions for itself.
The logic behind the decision
Ford’s purchase of a private jet isn’t as outrageous as some are making it sound. Hear me out.
Critics love crying foul whenever a politician appears to be taking advantage of taxpayer money.
But sometimes, those criticisms aren’t fair. Some expenses are just the cost of running a large organization.
Here’s one example, albeit on a smaller scale.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation, whose sole purpose is to criticize government expenses, recently said “gift cards are a tangible example of bureaucrats spending taxpayer money on extras and perks.”
If gift cards are handed out willy-nilly without any tracking or accountability, then sure.
But organizations — public and private — need a positive culture to retain workers. Spending a few dollars on a staff appreciation party, or a gift card for someone celebrating a work anniversary, is hardly a perk. It’s part of running a workplace.
On a much larger scale, there’s Ford’s purchase of a used private jet for government use.
$28.9 million to purchase a used jet sounds like a lot of money. And it is.
But with a government budget of more than $220 billion this fiscal year, the money to buy the plane is one hundredth of one per cent of that.
Let’s say your annual household budget is $75,000. That works out to roughly ten dollars — less than one McDonald’s Extra Value Meal.
The province of Ontario is massive. At more than one million square kilometres, it would rank as one of the 20 largest countries in the world.
“As part of the job of being Premier of Ontario, there is extensive travel within Ontario, a province twice the landmass of Texas,” Ford’s office said last week when defending the purchase.
With a province that big, many of its towns are not easy to get to, especially if you’re the premier and you’re on a tight schedule.
Let’s say Ford is travelling from Toronto to Sault Ste. Marie for an afternoon event.
According to Google Flights, there are three scheduled flights per day. They depart late anywhere from 40 to 60 per cent of the time, according to FlightStats.
Flight delays are a fact of life for all Canadians — including politicians. But wouldn’t you rather have the premier arrive at meetings on time instead of sitting around an airport lounge?
It’s not unreasonable to expect Ford to fly out late morning, attend the event, then return to Toronto that same night on a schedule that allows him to see his family and sleep at home.
Ford’s office certainly could have done a better job with the communications here. But there’s still a business case for it.
This isn’t unprecedented luxury or an excessive perk. It’s just the cost of running the government.
