From the Canadian Press team
Posted July 31, 2022, 5:06 pm
Updated July 31, 2022, 6:58 p.m
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is off to Costa Rica for a two-week vacation with his family.
The Prime Minister’s Office said the family is returning to the same place they stayed over the 2019 Christmas holidays and is paying for their own accommodation.
The prime minister must fly on a Royal Canadian Air Force plane for security reasons — even for personal trips — and the family’s flights on the last trip to and from Costa Rica cost the government about $57,000, not including thousands more spent on the stay crews in San Jose.
However, there are exceptions to these flight rules. Earlier this summer, for example, Trudeau flew an RCAF jet to Munich, Germany, to attend the G7 summit, but he was flown to the meeting site in the Bavarian Alps by a German police helicopter. This exception has been approved by the authorities concerned, according to senior PMO aides.
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But in 2017, Trudeau used an RCAF jet to fly from Ottawa to Nassau, Bahamas, and from there flew a private helicopter to the Aga Khan-owned Bahamian island. Trudeau has not cleared this flight with the relevant authorities. That flight, along with the free vacation he received from the Aga Khan, was later found by the Parliamentary Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner to be in violation of federal conflict of interest laws.
The PMO says it has consulted with the Ethics Commissioner’s office about the upcoming holiday.
The PMO says Trudeau will receive regular briefings while he is away.
– with files from David Akin
© 2022 The Canadian Press
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