Mr. Speaker, as has been said many times, the Minister of National Defence left personal time to return to work early. The Minister of National Defence paid for his air travel to and from his personal vacation and used government aircraft only when called away on government business.
The policy for the Prime Minister and ministers requires that commercial travel be utilized for public business, with government aircraft being used when commercial travel is not available or is not compatible with security requirements.
Our government has reduced average annual spending on ministers' Challenger flights by over 80% compared to the previous Liberal government.