There seems to be quite a bit of jet-setting going on at Surrey City Hall these days. I was surprised to read on the Surrey Now’s Twitter feed that Mayor Dianne Watts is in Israel on a “week-long trade mission… with focus on medical technology.”

Israel? Trade mission? That’s a tiny trade partner in the Canadian scheme of things – “Israel ranked #32 as a destination for BC origin exports in 2012 with 0.1% of BC’s commodity exports shipped there. It was ranked #55 as a destination for Canadian exports with 0.1% of Canadian goods exports shipped there and #39 as a source of imports into Canada with 0.2% of Canadian imports originating from Israel.”

But what is more concerning is that this follows on the heels of another international trip. From October 20-26, Mayor Watts and Councillor Tom Gill were in Colombia to try and snag the 2016 Women’s World Fastpitch Championships. I requested the cost of that trip through Freedom of Information (click here to see the documents).

Taxpayers paid $5,602.64 to send Watts to Colombia. That includes $3,605 for business class airfare, $1,489.64 in hotel, $193 for parking at YVR, and $315 in per diems. 

Taxpayers spent another $5,539.17 for Gill’s trip, including  $3,605 in business class airfare, $1528.45 in hotel, $315 in per diems, and $90.72 in mileage.

I guess I’ll be filing another FOI to see what Israel cost.