Trudeau's Idle New Year's Eve Plane $50K U-PAY

[GangstaTurtle]

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[SmokeOnTheWater]

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[The Green Barbarian]

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[rustled]

Story on the topic here:
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canad ... s-expenses

Ultimately...a prime minister has a lot of wiggle room to decide what constitutes “program-related business....
...while Harper paid for all his own clothing, Brian Mulroney is said to have expensed his suits, ties, coats and shoes to a mixture of public and party accounts.

Hmm. Tax-wise, we're not allowed to write off clothing unless it's safety gear. That was true when Mulroney was in power.

A prime minister with the spendthrift ways of a Senator Mike Duffy, for instance, could bank virtually his entire salary — provided he is comfortable with risking a potential media scandal.

Interestingly:

Harper had a reputation for being unusually scrupulous when it came to expenses. At the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, for instance, he got free admission to the opening and closing ceremonies, which he was required to attend. But he bought tickets for events he chose to attend on the side.

Sounds like a fair and reasonable approach. I wonder why it was considered unusually scrupulous? The story was written before we could really know what Trudeau's philosophy would look like in action.

There's more. And yes, to keep in on topic, prime minsters' travel is specifically mentioned.

[oneh2obabe]

Try and stay on topic please and thank you.

[The Green Barbarian]

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[LoneWolf_53]

I don't think people are shrugging this off. This discussion was useful because it highlights the costs associated with the current government protocols. The question now should be what alternatives are available to minimize these types of costs especially given the current fiscal situation we are facing.

You're definitely on to something there, though I still personally feel things need to be kept in perspective.

We're talking about the leader of a country, whose position puts him and his family under scrutiny 24/7, makes him and his family targets for all manner of nut cases, and that for a whole $163,700 per year. Not much more than some BCTF members make, yet the Prime Minister is in essence at work 24/7/365, as opposed to the other who get about a third of the year off with pay.

To nit pick some of the perks (in this instance it's actually a condition of the job, not a perk) that come with the job seems a tad petty to me in all honesty. How many of you out there would want the job?

Compare the position to certain CEO's who are raking in upwards of $10,000,000 a year and the cost of a plane on standby at an airport seems somewhat trivial, yet I don't see near the furor in regards to overpaid corporation heads earning what they do, and all for basically finding creative ways to fleece us royally day in day out.

I wonder what it costs to have Airforce One sitting on standby at an airport?

2 official planes are part of the assets set aside for the office of Prime Minister, along with an armored car, and residences, all owned by Canadians by the way, and as any wealthy folk could attest, it costs money to own planes, vehicles, and mansions.

I'm quite certain in fact that those planes still have a price tag attached to them, had Trudeau not gone to the Caribbean, as there still has to be a flight crew on standby. Also the planes are listed as "shared" so there is a likelihood that they may have been used for some other form of government business/official travel.

In my opinion this topic is just about as silly as those obsessed with Christy Clark's air travel expenses.

Since relatively efficient aircraft are used, I fail to see how the associated costs of our Prime Minister's air travel could be further reduced.

For that matter I doubt grounding him would satisfy some, as they'd simply find another bone to work with. Oh yeah the official residence requires groundskeepers, and that costs us money. Perhaps we should suggest Justin stay in shape by mowing the lawns of the estate before heading off to work. 8P