The Wildrose party accused the Progressive Conservative government Friday of breaking legislative assembly spending rules with a taxpayerfunded caucus retreat at Jasper Park Lodge.

Part of the three-day event, with a revised cost of $55,000, included a meeting with unelected Tory candidates in the upcoming provincial election.

Wildrose MLA Rob Anderson said that violates legislature rules on caucus spending, which mandate that "caucus activities and transactions should be separate and distinct from party activities, party identity (logos, colours, web pages), events or transactions and particularly election activities."

However Kim Misik, a spokesperson for Premier Alison Redford, said the government did not pay any costs, including transportation, food or lodging, for the candidates.

The meeting room where caucus members met with candidates to discuss the provincial election was paid for by the Progressive Conservative party, she said.

But Anderson said even if that was the case, Tory MLAs were still on the government tab when they were talking politics and party business.

"If they're holding a big partisan meeting like that, they shouldn't piggyback it on the back of taxpayers," he said in an interview Friday.

Anderson said the case is particularly galling because the legislative assembly office has been very strict in enforcing the same spending rules on the opposition parties.

For example, Wild rose is not allowed to put a picture of leader Danielle Smith on its caucus website because she is not an MLA, he said.

The Progressive Conservative party should pay for the whole event itself, said Anderson.

Failing that, the legislative assembly office should not approve the bill, he said.

David McNeil, the clerk of the legislature, said the office reviews all caucus expenditures as they are submitted and he could not comment on the retreat expense.

MLAs can file a complaint with the Speaker of the legislature if they have concerns about a caucus expense, he said.

Each caucus receives funding under a formula based on the number of seats it holds in the legislature.

In last year's budget, the Tory caucus was to receive $3.6 million, the Official Opposition Liberals $1.46 million, the NDP $561,000 and Wildrose $463,000.

Anderson argued the government caucus should not be under the same formula and should be drastically reduced because it has access to the full resources of the government.