Mayor Michelle Wu burned through more than $5,000 in taxpayer funds on travel accommodations for her four-day family trip to Canada, where she chopped down the Boston Common Christmas tree gifted to the city by the Nova Scotia province.
Wu brought along her family and two staff members for last week’s trip, at a total cost of $5,062, when factoring in flight and hotel accommodations, from Nov. 9-12, according to receipts provided to the Herald last Friday after a public records request.
While the city covered hotel accommodations for the mayor, her husband and three children, taxpayers didn’t pay for flight tickets for Wu’s family.
Wu flew economy both ways, from Boston to Halifax and back. She spent $573.79 on her flight, and $735.24 for a three-night stay for her and her family at the Halifax Marriott Harbourfront Hotel — for a total cost to taxpayers of $1,309.03.
The mayor’s expenses were lower than that of the two city staffers who tagged along, Paul Bologna, a photographer for the mayor’s office, and Phyllis St-Hubert, director of scheduling and advance.
Bologna’s economy class flight cost taxpayers a little over $1,302, when factoring in the $93 in travel insurance he tacked onto the cost — for an amount that nearly equaled the mayor’s total reimbursable expenses for the entire trip.
The mayor’s photographer also dropped $687.30 for a three-night stay at the Halifax Marriott Harbourfront Hotel, bringing his total expenses to $1,990.07.
St-Hubert booked a taxpayer-funded flight that cost $954.90, and spent three nights at the same hotel as Wu and Bologna, at a cost of $732.74. She also paid $75.26 for transportation to and from the airports in Boston and Halifax – bringing her total expenses to $1,762.90.
The mayor, her family and two staff members arrived in Canada on Sunday Nov. 9, and returned to Boston on Wednesday, Nov. 12.
Wu and her family visited Nova Scotia to highlight a continuing partnership with the Canadian province that began after an explosion that took place there in 1917 in Halifax Harbor, killing roughly 2,000 people.
Nova Scotia provides the city with its Boston Common Christmas tree each year as a thank-you for the city’s response which included sending medical aid and relief supplies following the explosion.
Wu became the first Boston mayor to attend and participate in the Boston tree-cutting ceremony in the Canadian province, the mayor’s office said.
Wu was photographed not only participating in the tree-cutting ceremony, but taking an actual chainsaw to the 45-foot tall white spruce that will arrive at Boston Common on Tuesday at 11 a.m.. The tree will serve as the city’s official 2025 Christmas tree. This year marked the 54th year of the annual tree donation.
The tree will be lit at approximately 7:55 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 4, as part of the City of Boston’s official tree-lighting ceremony that will take place on Boston Common, from 6-8 p.m. that evening, the mayor’s office said.
“It was an honor and delight to join our neighbors in Nova Scotia last week to deliver our thanks and support from Boston as this special tree started its journey,” Wu said Monday in a statement. “Our two communities share a special bond that continues to be strengthened year after year through this holiday tradition and our ongoing partnership.”
Halifax Mayor Andy Fillmore said “Halifax’s friendship with Boston spans centuries,” and added that he plans to visit Boston next month.
“At our darkest hour after the Halifax Explosion, Boston was there,” Fillmore said in a statement. “Our bond is forged by history and strengthened through tradition. I was very pleased to meet Mayor Wu in Halifax, and look forward to seeing her in Boston in December.”
Mayor Michelle Wu and her family took part in the annual Christmas Tree for Boston cutting ceremony in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. (Mayor’s Office Photo by Paul Bologna)
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, center, is surrounded by students and faculty from Nova Scotia Community College after cutting a white spruce tree from Lunenburg County that was selected as Nova Scotia’s 2025 Tree for Boston, in Martins Brook, Nova Scotia last week. (Darren Calabrese /The Canadian Press via AP)
