Canada’s armed forces, the RCMP and the Canada Border Services agency spent a total of $158,000 to send 42 employees to what’s billed as the biggest small arms show in the world last January.

In a written question in the Commons, B.C. Conservative MP Todd Doherty asked for expenditure details about federal employees who were “sent” to the annual SHOT Show in Las Vegas, Nev.

The annual exhibit, held in the sprawling Sands Expo Centre on the outskirts of the city’s downtown casinos, is limited to representatives from armed forces, police services, tactical police units, the gun industry and related associations. It is not an event open to the general public, and no one under age 16 is allowed in.

The annual event is put on each year by the U.S. National Shooting Sports Foundation — a lobbying arm for the U.S. Firearms Industry Trade Association. The industry generates $13.6 billion annually manufacturing small arms and ammunition in the U.S. and another $3.1 billion at the retail end.

Attendance to the Vegas trade show has grown to more than 62,000 from around the world. The events website totals over 500 suppliers, with more than 1,600 exhibitors.

Under the rules of procedure for government responses to the order paper questions from MPs, all departments had to submit responses to the question under Doherty’s name.

Only three departments or services responded that employees had attended the mammoth Jan. 22 to 25 exhibit — the Department of National Defence and Canadian Armed Forces, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canada Border Services Agency.

The amount spent by all three branches on flights, accommodation, meals and other costs totalled $158,431, with the DND contingent accounting for the lion’s share of the expenses, reporting $130,961 in costs. An RCMP troop of three Mounties who attended submitted expenses totalling $10,992 while expenses for five CBSA agents who also attended came to $16,478.

Doherty did not respond to a request for an interview for this story. His office connected iPolitics with Mathew Clancy, a press secretary for the Conservative shadow cabinet in the House of Commons. Clancy, by email, responded on behalf of Quebec MP Pierre Paul-Hus, the party’s critic for public safety.

“It is unacceptable that Justin Trudeau’s government sent dozens of public servants and spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars to attend a conference in Las Vegas,” Clancy’s email said. “This is yet again another example of Justin Trudeau’s lack of respect for Canadian taxpayer dollars,” Clancy quoted Paul-Hus as saying.

Word that the government agencies assigned personnel to the show spread quickly. Doherty, or a member of the Conservative caucus research bureau on his behalf, tabled the written question about government expenditures for the show on Jan. 29 — the first Commons sitting day after the show ended.

There were at least two other Canadians related to the arms industry who also attended the arms bazaar: Rod Giltaca, founder and head of the fledgling Canadian Coalition for Firearms Rights and a qualified firearms licence instructor, and Alison de Groot, managing director of the Canadian Sporting Arms and Ammunition Association.

The coalition has been strongly opposed to controversial Liberal gun-control legislation, Bill C-71, while the sporting arms group has advocated for firearm businesses and retailers as the bill has made its way through Parliament.

All three government branches responded to Doherty’s request for department rationale for sending personnel to the event.

The RCMP response explained that federal cabinet and Treasury Board had approved ongoing funding for the annual RCMP attendance at the trade show in 2005. The response did not mention it, but a Liberal government was in place at the time.

Two of the Mounties who participated are with the RCMP Specialized Firearms Support Services Unit, which the response described as the “policy centre” for national firearm classification in Canada.

The unit is responsible for development and maintenance of the Firearms Reference Table, a national database accessible only to licensed firearm businesses and firearm officers. The response describes the database as the “most comprehensive, single-source firearms reference in existence” and said it is used by law enforcement and other agencies in 190 countries via Interpol.

The other participant in the Mountie contingent was the senior armourer and technical authority for the RCMP’s National Armoury Program, which approves all firearms and accessories procured by the national police force.

The Canada Border Services Agency said its agents focused on knowledge of trends, innovations and health and safety regulations, as well as shooting range design, development and maintenance. The CBSA is still monitoring and reviewing the use of sidearms by its agents at borders, in a program that began in 2006.

By publication time, the Department of National Defence and Canadian Armed Forces had not yet responded to questions about its contingent, but pointed to the rationale the department explained in its response to Doherty’s question.

“These employees attended the event to improve corporate knowledge of innovation within the industries of small arms, ammunition and accessories for law enforcement and military applications, and to meet with different vendors,” the department’s House of Commons response said.

The department later provided a lengthy explanation of personnel work at the exhibit.

The Department of National Defence and Canadian Armed Forces contingent included staff from the department’s science and technology branch, the assistant deputy minister of materiel branch, the Canadian Army and the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command.

The group included members of a coalition project involving Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States that is developing a new-generation digital night vision goggle. A senior technician from the same branch attended to view new technology involving day and night vision rifle scopes.

Another member came from the Canadian Army Infantry School Sniper cell, while members of a Force Development team responsible for next generation weapons, ammunition and optic systems also attended.

“While no purchases were made directly as a result of attending the SHOT Show, attendance at these types of events helps to ensure that the CAF remains a first-class military, ready to face the challenges of the 21st century by helping to identify and target the requirements of the CAF,” said media liaison officer Daniel Lebouthillier.