Trudeau family turfs one of their two nannies

OTTAWA • Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife have turfed one of the two taxpayer-funded nannies hired to take care of their three children and will personally pay for a new caregiver.

Marilou Trayvilla, one of two “special assistants” whose hiring by Trudeau and wife Sophie Grégoire Trudeau sparked controversy because taxpayers were footing the bill, will leave her job July 1, according to a new cabinet order. The Prime Minister’s Office is not saying why she is being let go.

After months of criticism about Canadians paying for the Trudeau family’s caregivers, the Prime Minister’s Office said Tuesday the PM and his wife will pay the salary of a new caregiver themselves.

The other nanny remains part of the residence staff and will still be paid for by taxpayers.

“Adjustments to the prime minister’s household staff have been made. One of the two caregivers will no longer be working at the residence as of July 1,” Olivier Duchesneau, the prime minister’s deputy director of communications, said in an email.

Trayvilla and Marian Puego were hired in November as special assistants in the prime minister’s residence. A significant part of their job is to look after the three Trudeau children, Hadrien, 2, Ella-Grace, 7, and Xavier, 8.

They are paid $15 to $20 an hour during the day and $11 to $13 on the night shift.

Trudeau came under fire for weeks in the House of Commons for having the public fund his nannies, with the Conservatives demanding he pay for child care out of his own pocket. Trayvilla and Puego worked as nannies for Trudeau when he was leader of the third party in the Commons.