Montreal's politicians spent $200K on travel since November 2013

Elected officials in Montrealhave spent $200,000 ontravel expenses since November 2013, new data released by the city and compiled by CBC News shows.

Mayor DenisCoderrehas taken 40 differentbusiness trips nearly half of the total since he was elected to office.

Coderrehas travelled asfar as Japan, China, South Korea, Tunisia, Senegal, Argentinaand France for conferences and trade missions since he was first elected.

Montreal politicians have travelled widely, witha total of 85trips tofive different continents.

Map: Where Montreal's mayor andcouncillorswent over two years

Gohere for the full interactive version of the map

PierreDesrochers, the chairman of the executive committee, defended the expenses.Hesays outreach puts Montreal back on the map.

"You know it's not leisure tripsit's all business trips," saidDesrochers.

"It is either because we're part ofan association or because we want to promote Montreal either regionally, nationally or internationally."

'Tip of the iceberg'

GuillaumeLavoieofProjetMontralsaysthat the data provided by the citydoesn't include other expenses incurred during business trips, such as accommodations for staff whoare not elected officials.

"This is just the tip of the iceberg," saidLavoie.

Lavoiehopes to see more transparency and oversight,which he says is lacking at the executive committee level.

"It shouldn't matter who travels, it should matter why we're travelling, who is paying for it and where did that money go," saidLavoie.

"And when it comes to the mayor it is probably even less acceptable that we lack transparency."

Coast to coast trips

Most politicians' tripsare closer to home. Almost a third of all trips were withinQuebec for intermunicipal and provincial meetings.

The single biggest destination was Quebec City, which was visited 15 times in those two years. Toronto was visited eight times, while Ottawa and Paris each received five visits.

The single largest expense came to a total of $13,600 from April 2015.

Coderre, along withcouncillors Claude Dauphin, Michel Bissonnet, Maurice Cohen and Marie-ve Brunet, went toEdmonton for the annual conference of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.

Trips to other parts of the world also carried a hefty price tag.

A four-day conference in Buenos Aires in May 2015, attended byCoderreandDesrochers, cost $9,558.

Coderre'srecent trade mission to China, where he visitedfive cities, ran up a tab of $7,200.