Alberta’s government is bucking questions about the taxpayer cost of a delegation that toured Kentucky bourbon distilleries last year and brought a staffer’s husband along for the ride.
The office for Dale Nally, the minister of red tape reduction, says the husband of his chief of staff paid his own expenses.
But documents obtained by the Opposition NDP indicate Gary Davidson didn’t reimburse his share of group transportation costs.
The internal government documents and correspondence about the trip show distillery touring costs were split among industry stakeholders who paid their own way and expenses claimed by Nally, his deputy minister and his chief of staff.
The NDP says it amounts to a taxpayer-funded booze fest and has demanded the minister pay back $5,400 for the cost of the distillery tours.
New Democrats began asking about the trip last week, and Nally’s office has declined to answer questions about whether the minister consumed alcohol while touring about a dozen bourbon distilleries in early September 2025.
His office also declined to explain why Davidson joined the delegation. In 2019, Davidson ran unsuccessfully for a United Conservative Party nomination in a Red Deer riding.
The trip’s stated purpose was for meetings with Kentucky lawmakers and, when it was announced, representatives from Alberta’s whisky industry were invited at their own expense.
Last week, UCP Premier Danielle Smith defended Nally’s efforts to develop and promote the province’s whisky sector.
“We want to also have an Alberta whisky tour here. We need to understand those who are doing it well in Kentucky,” she said in the legislature.
Nally made the trip after Alberta lifted an initial ban on American alcohol products in June 2025 amid the ongoing trade war with the United States.
The minister has said international missions are at the core of his job and that he made the trip for research to help brand Alberta whisky and grow the province’s economy.
“Business loves it, and it’s working,” he said last week in question period.
An unnamed spokesperson for Nally’s office said in statements this week that Nally’s meetings helped inform the development of the Alberta Whisky Act, which passed legislature debate this spring. It establishes requirements and standards for a product to carry an official Alberta whisky label.
“Transportation was booked prior to the mission taking place to accommodate transportation for a larger group of people that included the minister, staff and industry representatives,” said the office.
Finance Minister Jason Nixon said last week that his department reviewed the receipts and that no alcohol was billed to taxpayers. He said expenses paid to a company called Sip Kentucky were strictly for transportation.
“The company was hired exclusively to do transportation,” he said.
NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi has been skeptical, pointing to one of the company’s slogans: “You sip. We drive.”
Last week, Nenshi called it an egregious expense to incur while Albertans are facing a cost-of-living crisis.
Receipts for the Kentucky trip are posted online and show plane tickets, accommodations, meals and transportation for Nally, his chief of staff and his deputy minister cost taxpayers about $20,000.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 10, 2026.
By Lisa Johnson and Jack Farrell | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.