Amid concerns about a looming recession in Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is in Costa Rica for a two-week vacation with his family.
The Prime Minister’s Office says the family is returning to the same place where they stayed over the Christmas holiday in 2019 and that they are paying for their own accommodations.
The prime minister must fly on a Royal Canadian Air Force plane for security reasons, even for personal travel, and the family’s flights on the last trip to and from Costa Rica cost the government about $57,000, without thousands more spent on flight crews’ stay in San Jose.
If Trudeau isn’t going to use the $8.6M renovated Harrington Lake for his summer vaca, turn it into a B&B.
Spending tens of thousands of taxpayer $’s flying to Costa Rica, plus $’s for personnel, plus tonnes of CO2 emissions…obviously elitism & hypocrisy are all powerful. pic.twitter.com/Je1PyciYkd— CaBird (@Bird5Ca) August 1, 2022
The PMO also says it consulted with the office of the federal ethics commissioner about the coming holiday.
In 2017, Trudeau was found to have violated conflict of interest rules related to a 2016 vacation he took to Aga Khan’s private island in the Bahamas.
The PMO says Trudeau will get regular briefings while he is away.