Trudeau Govt faces flak for not disclosing entire cost of Montana trip during Easter

Ottawa, Oct 6: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faced an onslaught from opposition MPs over his government allegedly suppressing the bulk of the costs of his Easter weekend trip to Montana earlier this year, reports said.

Conservative member Michelle Rempel Garner raised a point of privilege in the House of Commons on Thursday, terming the failure to include the costs incurred by the RCMP in the government’s answer to an MP’s question on the issue misled the MPs and the House of Commons, the CBC reported.

“The whole point of me raising this point of privilege is to show just how hard it is to get accurate information about the government,” she said.

CBC News has reported that Trudeau’s weekend vacation cost Canadian taxpayers nearly a quarter of a million dollars — over ten times far more than the sum revealed to the Parliament earlier.

In its answer on September 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 money spent on 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.

Even this 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 September 18 followed an earlier question posed by Berthold that was answered in June before the Department of National Defence had processed the costs. That too had failed to mention any costs incurred by the RCMP.

Trudeau’s office has also refused to answer more 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.

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, as he termed the lack of transparency and accountability as “unacceptable”.