Dominic LeBlanc once took paid trips to Taiwan and Israel.

Ginette Petitpas Taylor had travel paid for by the government of Qatar.

More recently, John Williamson and a group of Conservative MPs grabbed headlines for their trip to London.

Williamson’s tab was paid for by a think tank in Hungary.

The sponsored travel accepted by New Brunswick MPs, and dozens of other politicians, is commonplace on Parliament Hill where it’s entirely within current parliamentary ethics rules for members to accept trips to destinations all over the world as long as the purpose, cost, and sponsor of the trip is publicly disclosed.

But amid growing concerns of foreign interference in Canada’s elections and a bombshell report by a committee of parliamentarians that found some unnamed MPs are “witting or semi-witting” participants in foreign meddling, there’s now calls for it to end.

“Is there really a free lunch in politics?” Green Leader Elizabeth May said last week.

“I don’t see any reason that a member of Parliament should accept a free trip anywhere from a foreign government. I don’t think they offer free trips to visit their country without expecting that they’ve at least influenced the MP a bit.

“I just think it is bad practice and while we’re tightening up the rules and looking at foreign influence and foreign interference, I think they should not be allowed.”

May herself took a trip in 2018 that was sponsored by the Palestinian Authority to visit disputed territories.

She says she’s since reimbursed the costs of that trip.

Asked by Brunswick News about the value of sponsored travel and whether it should still be allowed, Williamson also suggested the rules should be tightened.

“Foreign interference is a problem for an unknown number of Trudeau Liberal MPs and if sponsored travel is enabling foreign agents to capture members it should be limited or ended,” Williamson said in an email.

The New Brunswick Southwest MP’s disclosure shows his travel to London last June was paid by the Danube Institute, based in Budapest.

He left Ottawa for London three days before the House of Commons adjourned for summer break to attend a meeting of the International Democrat Union, a global conservative political organization currently chaired by former prime minister Stephen Harper.

It also states that Williamson met on the topic of energy with the IDU and U.K. parliamentarians.

Roughly $4,000 in flight costs and $7,000 in hotels are listed.

That trip grabbed national headlines as Conservative MPs Stephen Ellis, Rosemarie Falk, Shannon Stubbs, Phillip Lawrence, along with Williamson, dined at high-end restaurants including the Savoy, Bentley’s, and the Guinea Grill.

The dinner at Bentley’s oyster bar came to $404.87 a person. The tab at Guinea Grill shows several expensive bottles of wine and champagne on the bill.

The sponsored travel registry shows Moncton-Riverview-Dieppe MP Ginette Petitpas Taylor was part of a delegation of Parliamentarians that travelled to Qatar’s capital city of Doha in 2016, paid for by the Qatar government.

Petitpas Taylor brought her husband, according to the documents.

Qatar covered $5,743 in flights and $1,000 for a hotel stay.

LeBlanc travelled with his wife to Taiwan in 2014 on a trip paid for by the Chinese International Economic Co-operation Association, a Taiwanese business organization.

That included $9,120 in flights and $2,128 for a hotel in Taipei.

LeBlanc, his wife, and stepson also had a trip to Israel paid for by the Canada-Israel Committee, now known as the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.

In disclosure documents, LeBlanc wrote that it was to “meet with Israeli government officials, parliamentarians, and defence forces.”

Roughly $15,000 in expenses were covered.

MPs racked up $840,000 in 2023 on travel bills paid for by lobby groups and foreign countries, nearly four times what was spent five years ago, according to analysis by Postmedia.

Politicians flew to 92 destinations, including places like London, Israel, Taiwan, Paris and Seoul.

That number is twice what it was in 2022, when MPs were given $412,332.86 worth of travel, and nearly four times what it was in 2019 when MPs were comped $221,627.76 in travel bills.

The pandemic years of 2020 and 2021 saw relatively little travel with only seven trips in either of those years.

Both LeBlanc and Petitpas Taylor’s offices declined requests to speak on the value of their trips.

Instead, both offered very similar statements.

“I suggest you address this request to the International Board of Economy, which is represented by all parties and makes its decisions by consensus,” Petitpas Taylor’s press secretary Isabelle Arseneau said.

Jean-Sébastien Comeau in LeBlanc’s office added: “It is preferable for this question to be dealt with by the Board of Internal Economy, which has representations from all parties and arrives at its decisions by consensus.”

A request for comment made to the board’s chair, Speaker Greg Fergus, wasn’t immediately returned.

Members of the Board of Internal Economy, which oversees the operation of the House of Commons and its spending, adopted a proposal last month made by Liberal MP Mark Gerretsen to examine exceptions to the rule that prohibit MPs from claiming expenses related to partisan events.

But that relates to how MPs can claim expenses for things like travel to a caucus meeting held at the same time and place as a party convention. It doesn’t directly deal with sponsored travel.

Last year, Lobbying Commissioner Nancy Bélanger banned any group that is federally registered to lobby from offering free trips to MPs.

Earlier this year, the House of Commons ethics committee passed a motion calling for the end of sponsored travel, with the idea to replace it with an expanded budget for MPs that allows for two international trips a year.

That moved the question of sponsored travel to the procedure and house affairs committee.

“Ultimately, I look at these trips as part of a perk that is not justifiable in the present economic context, nor is it accountable in terms of transparency and accountability,” said NDP MP Matthew Green, who put forward the original motion.

Williamson suggested the questions on sponsored travel come as Canadians want to know what MPs are helping foreign states.

The report by the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, known as NSICOP, cites “particularly concerning examples of behaviour by a few parliamentarian,” including “knowingly or through willful blindness” accepting funds or benefits from foreign governments.

It further alleges these Canadian officials worked to “improperly influence parliamentary colleagues or parliamentary business” at the direction of foreign actors.

The report was heavily redacted, not naming the MPs or which party they belong to or whether they are still sitting in the House of Commons.

“The Trudeau government should reveal the parliamentarians who have helped our adversaries and enemies so they could explain themselves and be accountable,” Williamson said.

LeBlanc, the Trudeau government’s Public Safety minister, has maintained that it is up to the RCMP to investigate and lay charges if warranted, while maintaining that intelligence reports often contain “uncorroborated or unverified” information.

MPs have since voted to see an ongoing inquiry into foreign interference investigate.