EDMONTON -- Under fire for expenses at a time when the province is seeking public input on budgeting, Premier Alison Redford defended taxpayers picking up her $2,483.50 dues for the Law Society of Alberta membership, a sum that includes a $100 late fee in March.

“I think it’s entirely appropriate, it’s consistent with the expense policy that we’ve set out and have made fully transparent from Oct. 1,” she said.

Paying the premier’s law society fee is Alberta practice and appropriate, she said.

As justice minister and attorney general from 2008 to 2011, she was the chief legal adviser for the province.

“From my perspective it’s part of my professional standing,” Redford said.

“It’s one of the things that I stand forward with and say that I’m proud of the fact that I’m a member of a profession with a great deal of integrity and it’s part of what has been government policy.”

Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith said while the job of premier comes with extra costs, the 1,200 pages of expenses Redford released in the legislature library Monday show a premier who believes she is entitled to live a life of luxury off the taxpayer.

“Spending up to $1,700 on booze, or over $900 for a one night stay in Washington, D.C., shows that Premier Redford is completely out of touch with the reality of hardworking Albertans,” Smith said, tallying a total of $246,788.65 charged to Alberta taxpayers by Premier Alison Redford since 2008.

Charges highlighted by the Wildrose included $499 for Redford’s American Express Aeroplan Plus Platinum Annual Fee in 2008, a $2.20 bill for lip butter in 2009 and $800.45 for an executive class flight from Edmonton to Calgary on March 11, 2008.