Governor General Mary Simon billed taxpayers nearly $100,000 in on-flight catering costs during a week of jet-setting to Dubai.
Simon and 29 Rideau Hall and Global Affairs passengers used up $93,117.89 in catering services on a Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) CC-150 Polaris government aircraft.
The Expo 2022 trip took place between Mar. 16 to Mar. 24 according to an order paper question by Conservative MP Michael Barrett.
Among those who accompanied Simon on her trip was Canada’s Middle East director-general Jess Dutton and Canada’s Protocol Chief Stewart Wheeler.
Simon’s trip also used up 146,872 litres of fuel, costing taxpayers $248,127.02 in refuelling expenses.
A week prior to the trip, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland and others also billed taxpayers $57,401.56 for catering during a trip to Berlin, Germany and Warsaw, Poland.
Other expensive catering costs included a Feb. 14 trip by Defence Minister Anita Anand to a NATO meeting in Brussels. During the trip, Anand and her staff billed taxpayers $2,498.62 in catering costs.
Last month, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation awarded Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s climate delegations the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award for wasting taxpayers’ money.
Trudeau’s 276-member delegation to the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow cost taxpayers an estimated $1 million.
During the summit, Freeland charged taxpayers $3,000 to take a private chauffeur to Glasgow after booking a hotel in Edinburgh instead of taking the $50-a-day train to the conference.
Taxpayers were billed $42,000 for her three-day hotel stay while also paying for an additional $11,573 flight.
Freelands staff and delegates also expensed taxpayers for their costs.
