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Newly released provincial spending reports showed the Ontario Ministry of Education spent $3.5 million on hotel expenses in 2007-2008 - a $1.1 million increase from the previous fiscal year.

Burlington MPP Joyce Savoline, the Progressive Conservative education critic, criticized Education Minister Kathleen Wynne on her "wasteful spending" in a statement released this week.

"Just think what the ministry could have done with that $1.1 million in extra spending instead," Savoline said. "For example, it could have saved two Toronto-area reading clinics that were put on the chopping block when the Toronto District School Board needed to scrounge money for English as a Second Language courses for new Canadian children."

The hotel bills include:

- $835,199 at Sheraton Hotels

- $737,314 at Marriott Hotels

- $676,795 at Hilton Hotels

- $340,298 at Delta Hotels

- $344,814 at Westin Hotels

- $170,674 at the Renaissance Toronto Airport Hotel

- $100,526 at the Sutton Place Hotel

Ministry of Education spokesperson Patricia MacNeil responded that the hotel expenses covered conferences and meetings held over 120 days to provide professional development for 8,700 teachers and educators.

While the ministry tries to accommodate having meetings in government buildings in Toronto, MacNeil noted that it's sometimes more cost effective to have separate conferences closer to the school boards in the outer areas of the province.

There have also been more meetings this year as a result of more programs introduced by the province, such as the Safe Schools Strategy, which require teachers to be trained, she said.

"There's a lot of training that goes along with these new initiatives. The vast majority of training will have some associated cost with hotels," MacNeil said. "When you look at the numbers, it (hotel costs) represents less than one per cent of the total education funding."