A government committee is trying to rein in Rideau Hall’s travel budget after a huge in-flight catering bill during a 2022 overseas trips made headlines.
Released on Wednesday, the report — titled Travel expenditures related to the office of the governor general’s Secretary since 2014 by the house government operations and estimates committee — was commissioned in reaction to National Post coverage of catering expenses incurred during Governor General Mary Simon’s March 2022 official visit to the Middle East .
That trip, which cost taxpayers around $1.3 million, rang up a $100,000 in-flight catering bill .
The committee’s final report was based on testimony from federal officials, documents and financial data from five separate federal departments.
The 13 recommendations in the report include requiring officials supporting the viceregal’s official travel to regularly review the cost-effectiveness of trips by reducing the size of delegations and sourcing snacks and drinks from within Canada, improve co-ordination and oversight on decisions related to executive travel, and factoring in local catering costs when deciding on airports for destinations and technical stops.
Other recommendations include delivering quarterly reports from Rideau Hall to the committee on travel expenses, encouraging federal departments to proactively disclose expenses for all travel undertaken by the Governor General, and that efforts be made to increase Rideau Hall’s financial transparency.
The committee did express frustration over what members described as incomplete testimony from some officials during deliberations.
“Members were surprised to learn more details about travel expenses in media reports the following day, despite departments having access to that information when witnesses were appearing before the committee,” the report read.
“Similarly, as explained above, federal organizations did not always send complete financial information for each visit.”
On the same day officials told the committee they were unable to provide itemized receipts from the Middle East trip, detailed RCAF emails, invoices and purchase orders were published by the National Post , courtesy of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
“The committee takes seriously its duty to examine public spending and cannot do so adequately if it lacks transparency from federal organizations,” read the report.
Although heavily redacted with most item quantities blacked out, those receipts revealed a lavish flight for the viceregal , her husband, staffers and 29 passengers aboard the Royal Canadian Air Force transport aircraft — the same CC-150 Polaris used by the prime minister as CANFORCE ONE during trips overseas.
Fare for that trip included beef wellington, beef carpaccio and scaloppini, with receipts showing officials invoiced 75 euros ($110 CAD) for four litres of apple juice, 150 euros ($216 CAD) for an unknown volume of orange juice, and 400 euros ($577) for a redacted number of lemons and limes.
A request for an official government response to the report was included by committee chair Conservative MP Kelly McCauley.
Dissenting opinions from both the Conservatives and Bloc Québécois were included in the report.
In their supplementary opinion, the Conservatives highlighted the absurdity of some of the expenses, including hundreds upon hundreds of dollars spent on drink garnishes.
The rebuttal also pointed to other questionable expenses covered by the National Post, including $71,000 spent on limo service for a four-day visit of Iceland’s capital of Reykjavík , and the over $37,000 Simon spent on clothing during her first 15 months in office .
“While it is understandable the Governor General acts as the Head of State and must travel to fulfill certain duties of his/her role, the rate of spending is completely unacceptable,” read the dissenting report.
Four additional recommendations were made by the Conservatives, including reducing the viceregal’s annual $150,000-per-year pension to one matching those earned by MPs, ending expense accounts for former governors general, and matching policies enacted by Australia that compel the Governor General’s office to publish annual activity and financial reports.
As for the Bloc Québécois, the brief dissent speaks of treating the “disease” rather than the symptoms by cutting ties completely with the Crown.
“The Bloc Québécois proposes addressing the root cause by making the following recommendation: That the federal government abolish the position of Governor General of Canada,” the statement read.
Cost comparisons
The report also ranked, on average, how much the current and two most recent governors general spent on travel — based on a selected one-year snapshot of each viceregal’s travel.
Based on information provided to the committee by government officials — some of which was either incomplete or missing — David Johnston spent $2.21 million on four major overseas trips during the 2014-15 fiscal year.
Julie Payette made 10 major overseas trips in 2019-20, costing $2.86 million.
During her first year in office, Mary Simon’s four overseas trips cost $1.95 million.
The Department of National Defence, the committee notes, failed to provide data on Johnston’s 2014 trade mission to Washington, citing record-keeping policies.
DND records for Simon’s June 2022 trip to attend the Queen’s platinum jubilee celebrations in London are likewise incomplete, the report states.
In-flight catering for Johnston’s November 2014 eight-day state visit to Chile and Colombia was $57,290, the report states, while Payette’s April 2019 trip to Kigali to represent Canada at 25th anniversary ceremonies of the Rwandan genocide racked up a $30,228 aircraft catering bill.
“Ms. Payette’s per-visit costs were at times significantly lower than her peers, because four of her 10 visits were with commercial airlines rather than government aircraft,” the report read.
“Ms. Simon and Mr. Johnston’s travel costs appear comparable, given inflation in the intervening years.”
Conservative public services critic Kelly Block, who is also a committee member, told the National Post that overruns at Rideau Hall are a symptom of the federal government’s problematic spending habits, particularly in the midst of an affordability crisis.
“While there are necessary costs for the Governor General’s office to function, Justin Trudeau has allowed spending to spiral out of control,” Block said.
“That is why common-sense Conservatives put forward a motion to reduce the budget of the Office of the Governor General.”
Committee vice-chair and Bloc Québécois government operations critic Julie Vignola said Canada is paying the price for living in the past.
“Seventy-eight per cent of Quebecers and 63 per cent of Canadians think that it’s time to rethink our links with the monarchy and this is also the belief of the Bloc Québécois,” she said.
“We support the committee’s recommendations in this study initiated by the Bloc, but we consider that they’re not precise enough and do not go far enough. We believe that rather than pruning the branches of the tree, we must cut it at the stump. No more $100,000 caterers, no more $700,000 4-day trips, no more $71,000 limousine fees and countless other expenses at taxpayers’ expenses.”
Franco Terrazzano, federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, dismissed the committee’s report as an unserious effort — particularly considering it took nearly a year to complete.
“The Liberals have seen these problems on the front page of the newspaper for years and now they’ve come up with a report that does as close to nothing as possible, and the only opposition member who seems to be rubber stamping this nothing burger report is the NDP’s Gord Johns,” he said.
“If the committee were serious, it would demand that the Governor General’s office be subject to access-to-information requests, it would cut out all international travel outside of the Governor General meeting with the monarchy, it would end the expense account for former governors general, it would reform the pension and it would end the clothing allowance.”
Source: National post
