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National

Trudeau drops nearly $200K on airplane food during six-day trip

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From the Canadian Taxpayers Federation

Author: Franco Terrazzano

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his entourage dropped $190,000 of taxpayer money on airplane food during a tour of the Indo-Pacific region last fall, according to access-to-information records obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

The taxpayer tab was $1.9 million for the six-day trip.

“I guess one way to beat the high cost of groceries in Canada is to take a government work trip and bill taxpayers for fancy airplane food,” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director. “For that price, the prime minister could have covered an average family’s grocery bill for almost two decades.”

From Sept. 5-10, 2023, Trudeau toured the Indo-Pacific region, meeting with business leaders in Singapore, the president of Indonesia, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and attending the G20 Summit in India.

The focus of the trip was “nurturing relationships with Asian leaders and advancing trade talks,” according to a report from the Canadian Press.

Costs for the trip included $427,000 for RCMP security, $643,000 for jet fuel and aircraft handling fees, $422,000 for hotels, $129,000 for ground transportation, and $190,000 for in-flight catering, according to government records obtained by the CTF.

The number of passengers on the government aircraft ranged from 37 to 54 at various legs of the trip. Additional costs included $22,000 for meals and incidentals (on top of the in-flight catering expenses) and $2,500 for gifts.

All told, the trip cost taxpayers $1,908,243. The tab could rise even higher, as the records indicate certain expenses are still being processed.

The $190,000 spent on in-flight catering surpasses the $100,000 Governor General Mary Simon spent on airplane food during her weeklong trip to the Middle East in March 2022.

In the aftermath of the in-flight catering costs for Simon’s trip becoming public, a Parliamentary committee summoned high-ranking government employees to answer for the outrageous tab, and later moved to curb future frivolous spending.

“We recognize that the system that we had in place was not delivering the kind of oversight and control that Canadian taxpayers deserve,” said Stewart Wheeler, who was then Canada’s chief of protocol.

“The government told taxpayers it would cut down on these extravagant trips, but dropping $200,000 on airplane food doesn’t exactly scream fiscal responsibility,” Terrazzano said. “The government is more than $1 trillion in debt, so maybe it could cool it on these expensive international trips.”

The CTF has filed access-to-information requests for the in-flight catering receipts for Trudeau’s September 2023 Indo-Pacific tour.

Business

The CBC is a government-funded giant no one watches

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This article supplied by Troy Media.

Troy Media By Kris Sims

The CBC is draining taxpayer money while Canadians tune out. It’s time to stop funding a media giant that’s become a political pawn

The CBC is a taxpayer-funded failure, and it’s time to pull the plug. Yet during the election campaign, Prime Minister Mark Carney pledged to pump another $150 million into the broadcaster, even as the CBC was covering his campaign. That’s a blatant conflict of interest, and it underlines why government-funded journalism must end.

The CBC even reported on that announcement, running a headline calling itself “underfunded.” Think about that. Imagine being a CBC employee asking Carney questions at a campaign news conference, while knowing that if he wins, your employer gets a bigger cheque. Meanwhile, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has pledged to defund the CBC. The broadcaster is literally covering a story that determines its future funding—and pretending there’s no conflict.

This kind of entanglement isn’t journalism. It’s political theatre. When reporters’ paycheques depend on who wins the election, public trust is shattered.

And the rot goes even deeper. In the Throne Speech, the Carney government vowed to “protect the institutions that bring these cultures and this identity to the world, like CBC/RadioCanada.” Before the election, a federal report recommended nearly doubling the CBC’s annual funding. Former heritage minister Pascale St-Onge said Canada should match the G7 average of $62 per person per year—a move that would balloon the CBC’s budget to $2.5 billion annually. That would nearly double the CBC’s current public funding, which already exceeds $1.2 billion per year.

To put that in perspective, $2.5 billion could cover the annual grocery bill for more than 150,000 Canadian families. But Ottawa wants to shovel more cash at an organization most Canadians don’t even watch.

St-Onge also proposed expanding the CBC’s mandate to “fight disinformation,” suggesting it should play a formal role in “helping the Canadian population understand fact-based information.” The federal government says this is about countering false or misleading information online—so-called “disinformation.” But the Carney platform took it further, pledging to “fully equip” the CBC to combat disinformation so Canadians “have a news source
they know they can trust.”

That raises troubling questions. Will the CBC become an official state fact-checker? Who decides what qualifies as “disinformation”? This isn’t about journalism anymore—it’s about control.

Meanwhile, accountability is nonexistent. Despite years of public backlash over lavish executive compensation, the CBC hasn’t cleaned up its act. Former CEO Catherine Tait earned nearly half a million dollars annually. Her successor, Marie Philippe Bouchard, will rake in up to $562,700. Bonuses were scrapped after criticism—but base salaries were quietly hiked instead. Canadians struggling with inflation and rising costs are footing the bill for bloated executive pay at a broadcaster few of them even watch.

The CBC’s flagship English-language prime-time news show draws just 1.8 per cent of available viewers. That means more than 98 per cent of TV-viewing Canadians are tuning out. The public isn’t buying what the CBC is selling—but they’re being forced to pay for it anyway.

Government-funded journalism is a conflict of interest by design. The CBC is expensive, unpopular, and unaccountable. It doesn’t need more money. It needs to stand on its own—or not at all.

Kris Sims is the Alberta Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation

Troy Media empowers Canadian community news outlets by providing independent, insightful analysis and commentary. Our mission is to support local media in helping Canadians stay informed and engaged by delivering reliable content that strengthens community connections and deepens understanding across the country.

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Business

Carney praises Trump’s world ‘leadership’ at G7 meeting in Canada

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From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

Canada’s prime minister said it was a ‘great honor’ to host the U.S. president and praised him for saying Canada wants to work with the U.S. ‘hand-in-hand.’

During the second day of the G7 leaders meeting in the Kananaskis area in Alberta, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney praised U.S. President Donald Trump’s world “leadership” despite saying many negative things about him during his election campaign.

While speaking to reporters Monday, Trump hinted that a new trade deal between Canada and the United States was potentially only “weeks” away. This came after a private meeting with Carney before the official G7 talks commenced.

“We’ve developed a very good relationship. And we’re going to be talking about trade and many other things,” Trump told reporters.

Carney was less vocal, however. He used the opportunity to tell reporters he was happy Trump came to his country for the G7 meeting, saying it was a “great honor” to host him.

“This marks the 50th birthday of the G7, and the G7 is nothing without U.S. leadership,” Carney told reporters.

He then spoke about Trump’s “personal leadership” on world issues and praised him for saying Canada wants to work with the U.S. “hand-in-hand.”

Carney ran his election campaign by claiming the Conservative Party would bow to Trump’s demands despite the fact that the party never said such things.

During his federal election campaign, Carney repeatedly took issue with Trump and the U.S. that turned into an anti-American Canadian legacy media frenzy.

However, the reality is, after Carney won the April 28 federal election, Trump praised him, saying, “Canada chose a very talented person.”

Trump has routinely suggested that Canada become an American state in recent months, often making such statements while talking about or implementing trade tariffs on Canadian goods.

As for Carney, he has said his government plans to launch a “new economy” in Canada that will involve “deepening” ties to the world.

 

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