N.S. premier’s trip to Switzerland cost almost $15,500

Michael Gorman · CBC News

· Posted: Jul 27, 2026 2:21 PM EDT | Last Updated: 6 hours ago

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston’s last-minute trip to Switzerland this spring to lobby on behalf of the Port of Halifax came with a hefty price tag that has opposition leaders asking questions.

According to the province’s public disclosure website for cabinet minister travel, Houston’s trip to Geneva from May 17-20 cost $12,879.92 for airfare and $2,584.66 for accommodations. While the website does not say where he stayed, a spokesperson for Houston’s office said he spent two nights at a Marriott hotel. His overnight flight was business class standard.

Houston’s chief of staff and general counsel, Nicole LaFosse Parker, also made the trip, along with officials from the port. LaFosse Parker’s expenses are not included in the premier’s totals.

‘Eye-watering’ numbers

Opposition leaders both said it’s important for the premier to travel, particularly at a time when the province is trying to diversify its economy, but NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that travel comes with an expectation from the public that the premier is choosing options that do not produce “eye-watering” numbers.

“That’s more than many families in Nova Scotia take home in the course of a couple of months,” she said in an interview.

Interim Liberal Leader Iain Rankin said that when the premier and members of his cabinet are talking about a record provincial deficit and the need for spending restraint, such an approach must also factor into how they travel.

“It’s important that we see business connections being made, but that particular figure seems, I think, alarming, to say the least, for everyday working families that are trying to make ends meet,” he said in an interview.

Rankin said it will be important to see what the return on investment is for the trip.

Potential major expansion for port

After his return from the trip in May, Houston told reporters it was during a meeting about a month earlier that port officials laid out the potential for federal support through the Trade Diversification Corridors Fund to help a planned expansion of the site near Point Pleasant Park.

“It’s hundreds of millions of dollars, could approach a billion dollars,” Houston said following a cabinet meeting.

Houston said he offered to do anything he could to help ensure an application was advanced for funding and not long after that port officials reached out to take him up on his offer, saying there was a chance to meet with the owners of MSC, the company with a 49 per cent interest in the port.

“It’s the largest shipping company in the world by a long shot,” said Houston.

“When you get a chance to meet with the owner of that company, you take it.”

Questions about past travel

Houston’s travel has drawn scrutiny in the past.

In February, the NDP released data showing the premier took 26 trips in 2025 covering 104 days at a total cost of about $82,000. Those trips included work related to the period when Houston also held the energy portfolio.

On Monday, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation issued a news release calling on the provincial government to rein in travel expenses, and it singled out Houston for the cost of his hotel stays on trips to Paris, Boston, London and Milan last year.

A three-night stay in London came at a cost of about $3,216, while a stay in Milan cost about $1,828 for two nights. Both were at five-star hotels.

“If Houston wants Nova Scotians to believe the government is serious about saving money, he needs to lead by example and that starts with staying in normal hotels like the rest of us,” the organization’s Atlantic director said in the release.

A spokesperson for Houston’s office said in a statement Monday that government officials work with the RCMP to “identify a secure hotel for accommodations, while taking into account proximity to meetings.”

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