{"id":531886,"date":"2026-03-19T01:26:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T01:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/531886\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T01:26:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T01:26:12","slug":"albertas-smith-defends-taking-private-flight-on-behalf-of-saudi-government-last-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/531886\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta\u2019s Smith defends taking private flight on behalf of Saudi government last fall"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith in Calgary on Feb. 20.Todd Korol\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith<\/a> is rejecting Opposition accusations of entitlement for using a private jet last fall courtesy of the Saudi government.<\/p>\n

Smith and members of her United Conservative Party government staff travelled to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to talk about collaborating on issues such as energy development and artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

In a raucous question period in the legislature Tuesday, Smith said it\u2019s not unusual for the Alberta government to also charter flights for foreign dignitaries to tour the province\u2019s oilsands. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am very transparent about my travels,\u201d she said, adding her trip was announced and advertised. <\/p>\n

The flights came to light in a committee hearing Tuesday when Opposition NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi asked the premier about missing receipts for a leg of the trip to the Middle East in late October and November.<\/p>\n

New Democrats asked why what they called \u201clavish\u201d gifts were kept secret until then.<\/p>\n

Nenshi lambasted the premier, calling it inappropriate to accept gifts from a foreign government that are potentially worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is so far out of the norm,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWould the premier, had she still been the leader of the Opposition, allow for this level of entitlement?\u201d said Nenshi.<\/p>\n

Smith said three flights were needed to make stops at a military airbase, an oilfield and a refinery.<\/p>\n

She said she was there at the invitation of the Saudi energy minister, Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud, and if not for the offer, she and her staff would have had to drive for three days.<\/p>\n

Smith has also said she stayed in accommodations provided by the Saudis, calling it social protocol, and that both the hotel rooms and flights were approved in advance by the ethics commissioner.<\/p>\n

Nenshi pressed Smith to release the ethics commissioner\u2019s written approval, and questioned whether social protocol justified taking advantage of the offer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy didn\u2019t the premier just say no?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Smith responded to Nenshi multiple times by listing the details of site tours hosted by the former NDP government for visitors, including an American think tank, congressional staff and governors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the kind of thing that we do with international and intergovernmental relations, and we\u2019re going to keep on doing it,\u201d said Smith.<\/p>\n

Nenshi countered that Smith was making a false comparison, since Saudi Arabia is not a democracy and is one of Alberta\u2019s \u201cmajor competitors\u201d in energy markets.<\/p>\n

But Smith argued that Alberta has a lot to learn from the country\u2019s advanced technology, and there are Alberta service companies that want to do business in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe second largest oil producer in the world and the fourth largest oil producer of the world \u2013 us \u2013 have a lot to talk about,\u201d said Smith.<\/p>\n

The heckling across the aisle became so heated, Speaker Ric McIver had to step in to call for order multiple times, including after government house leader Joseph Schow began listing tickets that Nenshi accepted to various events when he was Calgary mayor.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnybody want to do some work today?\u201d quipped McIver.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Alberta Premier Danielle Smith in Calgary on Feb. 20.Todd Korol\/The Canadian Press Alberta…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531887,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[2428,2416,2429,4,2408,2430,103,2407,2422,2423,2418,2409,2406,101,526,192,2421,2414,2441,2410,2411,2420,2417,149,983,2431,2413,2436,2437,2439,2434,2438,2432,2435,2412,2425,2426,111,2424,2433,79,2415,74,2427,2419,194,965,2440],"class_list":["post-531886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-science","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}