An Ontario cabinet minister who serves a northern Toronto district has pledged to repay the more than $16,000 he expensed for hotel accommodations in the city.
Tourism Minister Stan Cho, who represents the Willowdale riding in the North York district of Toronto, has submitted bills to the legislature on several occasions since 2023 for city hotel lodgings.
Cho addressed the matter in a brief media statement on July 14.
“While these expenses meet the criteria for special circumstances as set out by the Legislative Guide for Member’s expenses, I will be personally reimbursing the legislature for the amount of the expenses incurred,” he said.
His office has not released a statement to detail the reasons for incurring hotel expenses, but the legislature’s website lists major snowstorms or other extreme weather conditions that paralyze traffic and local transit as an example of valid special circumstances for members living within 50 kilometres of Queen’s Park.
Cho’s spending on hotel stays in the city has led to criticism from opposition parties, who say it’s a misuse of taxpayer money.
“The minister got caught with his hands in the cookie jar,” NDP Leader Marit Stiles told reporters during a press scrum. “I’d like to know why Doug Ford’s ministers think it is acceptable to live the sweet life on the taxpayer dime while Ontarians every day right now are struggling just to afford the basics.”
Stiles added in a media statement that Cho could get from Willowdale to Queen’s Park “without even having to change subway lines.”
Stiles also noted that Cho has a taxpayer-funded car and driver.
“There’s no reason he would need $16,000 worth of luxury downtown hotel stays,” she said.
Interim Liberal leader John Fraser told reporters on July 14 that he believes Cho felt “entitled” to bill the hotel expenses.
“The public purse is not the Progressive Conservatives’ personal piggy bank,” he said in a media statement. “Every single dollar spent belongs to Ontario taxpayers, but they all seem to think it’s for private jets and fancy hotels.”
Although both Stiles and Fraser hinted that Cho stayed at luxury hotels, that cannot be verified through public disclosure records. Specific names and locations of the hotels where the minister stayed are not publicly available.
His public expense disclosures list the claims as “special circumstance accommodation in Toronto” rather than naming individual properties.
