A cabinet minister’s travel expenses are raising eyebrows in Nova Scotia.

Natural Resources Minister Zach Churchill and his assistant, Shawn Lawlor, made two trips to Boston last spring, costing taxpayers almost $9,000 in airfare.

The first trip involved the christening of the new Nova Star ferry while the second trip, taken four days later, was for Nova Scotia Week.

The expense claims obtained by CTV News and filed by Churchill and Lawlor total $12,602. However, the claims show they spent $8,710 on airfare alone.

“I’m as frustrated with Air Canada prices as the next person, but we are in a position where we took last-minute flights to get down there and grab these promotional opportunities,” said Churchill on Thursday.

Nova Scotia NDP Leader Maureen MacDonald said she doesn’t question the merits of the trips, but is concerned about the cost of the flights.

“It’s definitely not the most economic way to get to Boston,” said MacDonald. “There are fares that are significantly cheaper than that.”

CTV News researched the cost of a last-minute trip to Boston, leaving Friday and returning Monday. A last-minute flight with Air Canada would cost $1,728. A last-minute flight with US Airways, with a one-hour stop in Philadelphia, would cost $808.

Questions are also being raised about why Churchill, the MLA for Yarmouth, flew to Boston for Nova Scotia Week, instead of taking the Nova Star ferry from Yarmouth to Portland, Maine.

Churchill wouldn’t say why he boarded a plane instead of the ferry, but said he fully supports the Nova Star, and paid for his own trip on the ferry this summer.

“I had a great little getaway for a few days with my girlfriend,” he said. “So I’m doing what I can individually, on a personal level, to support that vessel.”

Churchill said Boston is the Nova Star’s biggest market and the benefits of the trips outweighed any cost.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Jayson Baxter