Scott Stinson: Ontario minister who lives in Toronto billed $16,000 for Toronto hotels

The passage of time and the rising cost of groceries have rendered Bev Oda’s infamous $16 glass of orange juice somewhat quaint in the annals of politicians and their expense-account largesse.

Enter Ontario tourism minister Stan Cho and more than $16,000 in Toronto hotel stays, just a short drive from his home.

As Oda discovered, when the former Tory MP billed taxpayers for the juice during her stay at the swanky Savoy for a London conference, it’s the hotels that get you. 

Cho, first elected when Doug Ford came to power in 2018, represents the riding of Willowdale in Toronto’s north end. His constituency office is on Sheppard Avenue, which is accessible on the same subway line as Queen’s Park.

And yet, as first reported by Global News, public-disclosure records show Cho billed taxpayers more than $11,700 for Toronto hotel stays in 2025-26 alone, and more than $4,400 in the two years before that.

Cho initially told Global that while the hotel stays were permissible under provincial rules that allow local MPPs to stay downtown under “special circumstances” such as extremely late nights or weather events, he would pay back those stays that did not meet the “spirit” of the regulations. 

While everyone was trying to figure how someone could spiritually justify staying in a hotel instead of taking a government-supplied car and driver for the quick drive home, as is available to all members of cabinet, Cho’s office issued a new statement that said he would repay all the hotel expenses.

It is a baffling misstep. While the disclosure records do not include details such as length of stay or the cost of an individual visit, it seems likely that Cho, 48, stayed in a Toronto hotel for several dozen nights in the past year. Either that, or he had particularly extravagant taste in hotels.

The odd overnight stay might be explainable for reasons of convenience or personal safety, but as opposition politicians were only too happy to point out at Queen’s Park, Cho’s usage looks more like a personal preference.

“It’s got kind of a luxury private jet vibe to it,” said interim Liberal leader John Fraser, a reference to the Ford government’s brief, ill-fated ownership of a private jet that had been purchased to facilitate the premier’s travels. The “gravy plane” was bought for just under $30 million and sold back to Bombardier for the same amount this past spring, once it became clear that the gravy-plane moniker was going to stick.

NDP leader Marit Stiles noted that Cho could take the subway back to his riding, even late at night.

“I don’t understand it, and I think the people of Ontario deserve answers,” she said. Both party leaders noted that Cho’s promise to reimburse taxpayers came only after the hotel stays became the subject of news reports.

Cho can at least claim that he was not alone among Toronto-area MPPs who billed the public for local hotel stays.

The Trillium reported on Tuesday that 16 Progressive Conservative MPPs have used the “special circumstances” hotel allowance in recent years. Most of them, including Brampton East MPP Hardeep Grewal, who has billed more than $28,000 for hotel stays since 2022, represent ridings that are considerably further from Queen’s Park than Willowdale.

These are the types of expenses that Ford typically rails against, but with the legislature on an extended summer break, he has so far not commented on the revelations. When it emerged in the spring that the government’s brief ownership of the private jet resulted in about $200,000 in fees to the taxpayer, the premier said that “no one was more ticked off” than him about it.

On Wednesday morning, the Ford government said it would move to eliminate the “special circumstance” expense category entirely.

sstinson@postmedia.com