PM’S FREE $84,000 JAMAICAN VACATION
Ethics czar OK’D trip, PMO says
Over the holidays, the prime minister stayed in a private compound at a luxury oceanfront resort in Jamaica that rents for over $9,300 per night that was provided to him and his family at no cost by longtime friends.
Justin Trudeau was scheduled to return to Ottawa on Thursday after the 10-day vacation with his three children and wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, from whom he legally separated in August.
The Prime Minister’s Office had not disclosed exactly where in Jamaica the Trudeaus stayed, but photos posted on social media during their trip show two family members relaxing poolside at the Frankfort villa, a secluded beachfront enclave that is part of the Prospect Estate resort near Ocho Rios.
The resort is owned by the family of Peter Green, a businessman with ties to Trudeau’s family dating to the 1970s through his late father, Pierre Elliott Trudeau.
The Frankfort is one of five villas at the resort that can be rented. During what the resort calls the “festive period” over Christmas holidays, the Frankfort is available for US$7,000 per night. The rate would be about C$84,000 for the nine nights the Trudeaus spent in Jamaica.
The family stayed at the same resort last Christmas, but Trudeau’s office did not say then who paid for their accommodations.
Before this year’s trip, the PMO originally told The Canadian Press that Trudeau would be paying for his family’s stay in Jamaica.
But after the National Post this week inquired about the extremely high nightly rate, the PMO on Wednesday issued what was described as a “clarification” to the wire service, this time saying that the family had vacationed “at no cost at a location owned by family friends.”
The trip was cleared in advance by new federal Ethics Commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein. The PMO said the commissioner was told from the start that the Trudeaus’ accommodations were provided for free to the family, the PMO says.
“As per standard practice, the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner was consulted on these details prior to the travel to ensure that the rules were followed,” said PMO spokesman Mohammad Hussain in a text message to the National Post.
Prospect Estate describes Frankfort, the most secluded of its villas, as “a fortified residence dating back to the 17th century” and says it is “perhaps the most desirable north coast villa in Jamaica.”
The 5,000-square-foot villa offers six bedrooms with en suite bathrooms in two buildings, sleeping 12 guests, and a private swimming pool and hot tub just steps away from a private white-sand beach.
The villa is fully staffed by a cook, gardener, housekeepers and butlers, according to the resort’s website.
Trudeau did pay partial costs of his family’s flight from Ottawa to Jamaica. For security reasons, the prime minister must travel by government aircraft when he goes on holiday. Trudeau has continued the practice, adopted by former prime minister Stephen Harper, of reimbursing the government for the value of the equivalent commercial flights, but not the much-higher actual cost of operating the government jets.
On Trudeau’s trip to Prospect Estate at the end of 2022, the additional expenses to keep Canadian Armed Forces aircrews and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police protective detail in Jamaica cost the government more than $149,000. The Privy Council Office paid another $14,000 to have a staff member stay near the resort to ensure a secure phone line was available to the prime minister during his vacation.
In April, Trudeau faced questions about a potential conflict of interest over the December 2022 trip to Prospect Estate because Green’s family has donated in the past to the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, to which the prime minister’s family is connected.
In 2021, Green’s sons, Alexander and Andrew, both from Bermuda, had funded a Trudeau Foundation scholarship honouring their late mother, Mary-jean Mitchell Green.
Green died of breast cancer in 1990. She had inherited the Prospect Estate resort from her father, Sir Harold Mitchell. The ownership later passed to her husband Peter Green, a Bermuda hotel magnate who was a friend of Pierre Trudeau’s. The elder Trudeau was godfather to Green’s son Andrew. A 2005 news report put the value of the Green estate at 600 million pounds.
The PMO denied any conflict between the prime minister’s previous stay at Prospect Estate and the Greens’ donation to the Trudeau foundation, noting that Justin Trudeau has not been personally involved with the foundation since becoming Liberal party leader in 2013.
When questioned about the previous trip in the House of Commons by Pierre Poilievre, Trudeau replied that the Conservative leader struggled with the concept of friendship.
“My father was godfather to one of their kids, their father was godfather to one of my brothers. This is 50 years of friendship,” he said.
At Pierre Trudeau’s funeral in 2000, Alexander Green read a brief prayer before Justin Trudeau delivered his eulogy.