Back in September, Deveryn Ross, a regular contributor to the Winnipeg Free Press, had a column titled "A Photo-Op Takes Flight."

When I read the column, I'll admit, I was pretty surprised.

In my role I see a lot of examples of wasteful government spending; including a lot of dumb decisions made by politicians. But the Brandon tale he told was special...in a ridiculous way.

Ross highlighted how Brandon had just secured regular WestJet flights to the city. It was huge news for Manitoba's second biggest city - I'm guessing it was a bit like Winnipeggers hearing Ikea was coming to town.

To celebrate the first WestJet flight to her city, Brandon Mayor Shari Decter-Hirst packed up a couple bureaucrats, drove to Winnipeg in a rental car, dumped the rental car, flew to Calgary, spent the night there in a Four Points Sheraton and then flew to Brandon.

Why?

Apparently so she could be seen coming off the first flight to Brandon.

Talk about a desperate stunt for attention. Instead of tying up bureaucrat time (and her own) driving and flying all over the place, the Mayor could have stood and greeted the first passengers as they got off WestJet's first flight to Brandon. As the top ambassador for the city, and as it was such a huge moment for the city, one would almost expect her to be involved in such a role.

But beyond time needed to structure a photo-op the way she did, there of course is money too. Someone had to pay for staff time, a rental car, flights, hotel rooms, food, etc. The answer of course is Brandon taxpayers.

According to documents obtained by the CTF, the City of Brandon claims the Brandon-Winnipeg-Calgary-Brandon junket cost taxpayers $1,381.58 plus the cost of staff time (click to see the bills).

Is it a lot of money in terms of Brandon's overall budget? Nope. But that's not the point.

It's symbolic more than anything. After all, this is the same mayor who tried to raise property taxes by 20% a couple years ago.

Photo from Brandon Sun

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