High-flying Trudeau dings taxpayers plenty
Trips on Challenger jet back and forth to Florida costs up to $10,000 an hour
Maybe it’s the tiresome taint of the Snc-lavalin scandal, now into its second month, or maybe just fatigue at Justin Trudeau as prime minister. But I cannot be the only one watching his shuffling to Florida this week, who wanted to yell “stop playing us for fools!”
No one should begrudge a prime minister some family time, especially with young kids. And this PM has never been timid about taking ski trips, sun holidays and regular weekends away at the official prime ministerial Harrington Lake summer residence, complete with newly purchased hot tub, canoes, ski boat and other taxpayer-expensed toys.
But this week moved the needle way past silly and frivolous. For obvious security and logistics reasons — not to mention being accessible if needed — Canadian prime ministers and their families generally fly on government private jets, even for a completely personal holiday.
Excluding staff and expenses, the jets are not cheap. The “small” Challenger jet, with a range of 5,400 kilometres and seating nine to 15 people, runs at a cost of $8,000-$10,000 per hour. It is the jet most often used by the Trudeau family.
The larger “Can Force One” is an Airbus A310-300 refitted with an office, bedroom and passenger seating, that a military spokesman once said is as “luxurious as a good motor home.” It costs at least $24,000 an hour to operate.
Rather than pass along the actual cost of these private jets to a prime minister’s family — because the job requires the special transport — the deal is to invoice personal travel at the same price as a commercially available airline ticket. So, with an Ottawa to Florida ticket in the $500 range (American Airlines has a sweet $300 return deal), each member of the Trudeau family will have to pay the commercial rate for their current trip to Florida.
Being March break for Ontario schools, the prime minister apparently rented two houses on North Captiva Island in southwest Florida, accessible only by water. A local NBC affiliate got wind of the PM’S arrival and showed the government Challenger jet on the tarmac and a flotilla of boats, including exhaust-spewing triple outboards, ferrying the PM and his entourage.
All of this happened on Saturday. By Monday of this week, the Challenger jet was spotted leaving the airport, apparently with Mr. Trudeau on board. His publicly posted itinerary listed private meetings in Ottawa on Tuesday, and then back to Florida for family time on Wednesday.
Let’s get this straight — the PM flew to Florida on Saturday, back to Ottawa Monday and then back to Florida for Wednesday. While his two return tickets — at commercial rates — will cost him less than a thousand bucks, the actual cost to taxpayers of three legs of a flight, at three hours each way, is between $72,000 and $90,000. And he’s not done yet; presumably the PM has to get back to Ottawa at some point.
This is not like some parent commuting from Regina Beach into the Queen City or maybe pushing a Waskesiu-saskatoon run, while juggling family time at the cabin while driving back and forth to the office.
As the man who has presided over a government that has taken virtue signalling and identity politics to an art form, we’ve been incessantly hectored by Mr. Trudeau and his climate minions over “carbon pollution,” the size of our carbon footprints and the need to pay the government carbon taxes so the weather won’t change.
Trudeau supporters in the environmental movement, who get angry with him over excessive jet use, estimate one return flight on a private jet to Florida emits roughly the same amount of carbon dioxide as the average Canadian does in an entire year.
So now Trudeau uses a government jet, at taxpayers’ expense, to commute 2,200 kilometres between family and work? Stop, please.
John Gormley is a broadcaster, lawyer, author and former Progressive Conservative MP whose radio talk show is heard weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on 650 CKOM Saskatoon and 980 CJME Regina.