The topic of Dick Harris's residence in Osoyoos typically arose during his last few years as the MP for Cariboo-Prince George with the quarterly release of MP expenses.
Harris has been the subject of much scrutiny, as he's frequently in the top tier of spenders, both among B.C. representatives and Canada-wide.
He said he didn't respond to the most recent concerns when his bill topped out at $505,257.08 last year, particularly those raised by the Vancouver Sun's Peter O'Neil, because "people would ignore it."
MPs are issued 64 travel points per fiscal year (ending March 31) for use by themselves or their authorized travellers (i.e. spouse, dependents, staff), with one point being a round trip.
All 64 can be used to go between Ottawa and the constituency and up to 25 can be used for other travel (including up to four points for trips to the U.S.).
As O'Neil noted in his late June story, Harris's travel expenses nearly doubled last year going from $56,188.37 in 2013-14 to $108,711.04 in 2014-15. A major portion of that increase came from a tripling of the cash paid out to cover his wife Anne Phillips's travel.
For comparison, total expenses for Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies MP Bob Zimmer reached a term high of $485,557 last year. Zimmer charged the House $86,038.21 for travel for himself, his wife, dependents and staff in the 2014-15 fiscal year and $81,148.38 in 2013-14.
Harris was adamant that nothing was different, travel wise.
"I can tell you this, that my wife never made any more flights in the year 2014 than she did in 2013 or in 2012," he said. "It's just the way the purchases were made."
Detailed travel reports of who is taking what trips have only been made available for MPs as of the 2014-15 fiscal year.
But according to the information that is available in the older reports, Phillips used 14 travel points in 2012-13 ($51,773.63 charged to the House), 12 travel points in 2013-14 ($18,712.97 charged to the House) and 22.5 travel points in 2014-15 ($54,457.74).
As an MP, Harris and his wife were authorized to travel in business class for all regular trips (defined as travel between the constituency and Ottawa) more than two hours and full-fare economy for special trips (such as to the U.S. or other points in Canada).
Harris said he preferred to book his own travel. MPs who do this instead of using the travel services provided have to buy flight passes from an airline.
An East-West Connector flight pass from Air Canada with 10 one-way trips in business class costs $13,104.
The pass is eligible for flights to and from the Vancouver airport.
Harris said the spikes in numbers were due to the timing of his purchase of flight passes - namely, buying new ones before the fiscal year had ended because he was running out of travel segments both in late 2012 and late 2014.
"And when you buy a flight pass, it gets charged to you when you buy it, not when you use it," he said. "And if I thought it was going to be an issue I probably would have done it a little strategically different. If I had even done one of those flight passes (differently), I would have been down somewhere around fifth place (in B.C. MP spending) rather than first."
Harris said Phillips began travelling with him on a consistent basis about four years ago, following a health incident occurring while on a plane.
Calling her his "backup hard drive," Harris said his wife - who left her job as an editor for a national trade magazine - always had good insights.
In travel reports for both last year's and the first quarter of this year, Harris's travel between both Osoyoos and Ottawa and Prince George and Ottawa were listed as trips to the constituency and classed as regular travel.
Between April and the end of June of this year, Harris and his wife have charged the House $15,239.21 for a combined six round trips.
