Governor-General Mary Simon, along with 29 passengers, dropped a whopping $93,117.89 on food, drinks, and other luxuries while aboard government planes during a trip to the 2020 Expo in Dubai.
Indeed, it looks like while Canadians were bracing for near record-breaking inflation, the federal government was eating good on the public’s dollar.
The details of the finances of this trip came as a result of an order paper question submitted by Conservative MP Michael Barrett.
“We always want transparency from the government on what their costs are for international travel, particularly at a time when Canadians have been unable to travel and are experiencing a cost of living crisis,” he said in an interview with CTV News.
Besides the capital of the United Arab Emirates, other destinations on the Governor General’s trip aboard the government’s CC-150 Polaris aircraft included London, Qatar to visit the Canadian Armed Forces at the Al Udeid Air Base, and Kuwait to visit Camp Canada at the Ali Al Salem Air Base.
For the intended trip, as well as all the pit stops, the fuel bill was similarly high, coming in at $248,127.02.
However, as Barrett notes, this is likely only the tip of the iceberg, as Canadians still don’t know how much of their taxpayer money was spent when government officials weren’t aboard the plan.
“They weren’t on the plane the whole time; we don’t know what their costs were at [the] destination. We’re talking about just what they were consuming in-flight,” Barrett explains. “For many Canadians [the amount] exceeds their household income per year, and they spent it on a single trip.”
When asked about the high costs of the trip, Rideau Hall’s director of communications, Natalie Babin Dufresne, deflected blame on to the CAF.
“The Governor-General undertakes official and state visits abroad on request by the Prime Minister and in support of Canada’s international diplomatic objectives. The Canadian Armed Forces are responsible for providing transportation during these visits and as such are responsible for all decisions relating to catering on these flights,” an email reads.
