Craig Smith couldn't believe what he was seeing.  He writes for a political blog called "Conservative Life."  Before the January election, someone sent him a link to a federal government website, which lists hotels civil servants can stay at when travelling on taxpayer-funded business. 

"Some of the locations we were finding just didn't make any sense," said Smith.  "It doesn't seem appropriate to me."

Smith had stumbled on Ottawa's only detailed, central record of government travel. The website is intended for civil servants, and lists approved hotels and their prices.  It also estimates how many rooms the government rents annually, in locations worldwide. 

It reveals that Canadian taxpayers pay for hundreds of hotel rooms every year, in exotic or resort locations. 

Here are some examples from 2003/2004:

• 800 rooms in Cancun, Mexico
• 636 rooms in Barbados
• 523 rooms in San Jose, Costa Rica
• 290 rooms in Marrakech, Morocco
• 192 rooms in Casablanca, Morrocco
• 167 rooms in Montego Bay, Jamaica
• 107 rooms in Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo, Mexico
• 98 rooms in Bermuda
• 93 rooms in Nassau, Bahamas

"I can understand there being conferences in exotic locations occasionally and having to send some government employees there, " said Smith. "But, 636 room nights in Barbados for one year seems awfully excessive to me. That basically amounts to two government employees travelling to Barbados every day of the year."

The government estimates show, on average, Ottawa pays for 439 hotel rooms every single night of the year, outside Canada and the U.S. That's some 160,000 room nights annually.

In 2004 and 2005, taxpayers shelled out $66,687 at the Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort in Hawaii. Last year, Ottawa rented 65 rooms at the British Colonial Nassau Hotel, in the Bahamas, for $11,585. 

The Department of Public Works negotiates the rates with the international hotels (up to $250 U.S. per night), but doesn't keep any information on who stays where and why. It says it's up to each individual department to keep those records. It also stresses the government gets special room rates at all the approved hotels.

Ottawa spends a quarter of a billion dollars each year on hotel stays, overall -- within Canada and around the world -- for civil servants government-wide. Public Works says some of the departments spending the most on travel are National Defense, Foreign Affairs and International Trade and the Canada Border Services Agency. 

"How do I as a taxpayer know that the hotels are being used properly? There's no way for me to dig up that information from every single government department," said Smith. 

"There's no accountability here," said Tasha Kheirddin, of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. "I don't understand why they don't disclose that. They certainly should be."

CTV looked on the government's public websites, where each department is supposed to disclose travel expenses for ministers and senior public servants. Within the top travelling deparments, we couldn't find any travel records to places like Cancun or Barbados.

"Obviously, the government is not making people report on this and that's just wrong," said Kheiriddin. "There are a lot more bureaucrats than politicans spending our money.  There should be a way to find out why they are taking these trips."

Kheiriddin says it's typical of the frustrating experiences her organization has, trying to get detailed information on government spending.

"It's a big problem," she said.  "Hopefully this (new) government will address it.  It has the chance to do that with stronger sunshine laws or accountability legislation."

CTV tried several times to ask the new Public Works Minister about this.  The department told us Michael Fortier hasn't had enough time yet to be briefed. Public Works also told us they are going to start keeping better track of the hotel usage, by requiring all hotels to report back on how many rooms were used this year.

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