Opposition critics slammed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Thursday, saying his government hasn’t been transparent about the full cost of his Easter weekend trip to Montana.
NDP ethics critic Matthew Green said that while the prime minister deserves to have security protection and take vacations, Canadians should know how much those vacations cost them.
“What is unacceptable here is the lack of transparency and accountability,” Green said. “When the prime minister makes those personal decisions that come at a significant cost to taxpayers, Canadians deserve to know exactly how much money is being spent.”
Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner raised a point of privilege in the House of Commons Thursday, saying the failure to include the costs incurred by the RCMP in the government’s answer to an MP’s question misled MPs and the House of Commons.
“The whole point of me raising this point of privilege has been to show just how hard it is to get accurate information about the government,” she said.
CBC News has reported that the prime minister’s Easter weekend vacation to Montana cost Canadian taxpayers nearly a quarter of a million dollars — far more than the sum revealed to Parliament.
In its answer on Sept. 18 to a question put on the order paper by Conservative MP Luc Berthold, the government disclosed $23,846 in spending by the Canadian Armed Forces and the Privy Council on the trip.
But that sum didn’t include the $204,993 cost to the RCMP for overtime and things such as accommodations, meals, incidentals and travel. That was only revealed this week, in response to a question to the police force from CBC News, bringing the total cost to taxpayers to more than $228,839.
That total doesn’t include the regular salary costs for RCMP officers, aircrew and a Privy Council official who handles secure communications for the prime minister when he travels.
The answer tabled on Sept 18, follows an earlier question posed by Berthold that was answered in June before the Department of National Defence had processed the costs. The government’s answer to that order paper question also failed to mention any costs incurred by the RCMP.
Trudeau’s office has refused to answer questions about the trip, such as where he stayed in Montana, whether he paid for his accommodations, whether he visited anyone and who accompanied him there. It also refused to explain why the RCMP costs weren’t disclosed when the government answered Berthold’s question.
“As per long-standing government policy and for security reasons, the prime minister must travel on government aircraft, whether he is on official or personal business,” spokesperson Alison Murphy wrote in an e-mailed response. “As was the case with previous prime ministers, when travelling for personal reasons, the prime minister and any guests travelling with him reimburse an equivalent commercial airfare.”
Trudeau has run into controversy in the past over his vacations with his family outside Canada. A trip to visit the Aga Khan on an island in the Bahamas during the 2016/17 Christmas break resulted in a bill to taxpayers of $271,000 and a finding from Canada’s ethics commissioner that he had breached government ethics rules.
His trip from Dec. 26 to Jan. 4 of this year to an exclusive estate in Jamaica cost taxpayers at least $162,000. The wealthy owner of the Prospect estate, Peter Green, is a long-time friend of the Trudeau family who has also donated to the Trudeau Foundation.
The controversy over the cost of previous vacations makes it all the more important for Trudeau to be transparent about the cost of the Montana trip, said Green.
“This is coming from a prime minister who has a long history of indiscretions on travel and one would think and hope that the prime minister would have learned his lessons,” he said.
Green pointed out that Trudeau has yet to reveal whether he paid the commercial rate for his family’s accommodations during their trip to Jamaica.
Rempel Garner based her point of privilege on the government’s answer to the earlier order paper question answered in June. The information from the Privy Council Office was signed off by Liberal MP Greg Fergus, who was serving at the time as parliamentary secretary to the prime minister.
Fergus was elected Speaker of the House of Commons earlier this week. He could be called upon to rule on whether the government’s response to an order paper question he helped to answer breached parliamentary privilege.
Rempel Garner has called on Fergus to recuse himself from ruling on her point of privilege and to allow the question to be debated and voted on by the House of Commons.
If either the Speaker or the House of Commons finds that there has been a breach of parliamentary privilege, the issue would be referred to the procedure and House affairs committee for further study and possible hearings.
Elizabeth Thompson can be reached at Elizabeth.thompson@cbc.ca
