New Rules for who pays - Trudeau travels

[Barney Google]

Who pays? New guide sets out rules for Trudeau travels, nannies

Trudeau's frequent travels with family, nannies and other entourage prompts new rule book about costs

"Justin Trudeau's frequent trips abroad — often with an entourage of family, nannies, officials and guests — raise tricky questions about who travels on the public dime and who does not.

So the government recently "formalized" the rules, setting out who digs into their own pockets for travel expenses and who gets their bills picked up by taxpayers.

One unexpected disclosure in the four-page guideline document, obtained by CBC News under the Access to Information Act, is the extent to which public money can underwrite the prime minister's personal travels, such as vacations or trips for the Liberal party.

The travel costs and salaries of a "residential staff member" — a code word for caregiver — are eligible to be picked up by the government during the family's private travel, for example:
"In addition, if a residential staff member is asked by the prime minister to accompany his or her family on personal travel as part of their duties, the government of Canada will cover the travel-related costs, if requested."...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau ... -1.3685341

[Hassel99]

I'm fine with this.

[Rwede]

I'm not fine with this.

[Barney Google]

$50,000 bill for the Canadian military to fly the Trudeaus to the New Years vacations?

[Smurf]

It doesn't sound right does it. However it is us or at least our supposed rules that require him to use government planes, RCMP security etc. It is not his choice. I have no idea how it can be controlled with the requirements put upon him. He supposedly is paying all that is required and even some he could claim. Any ideas.

[flamingfingers]

BG quoted from the CBC excerpt:

One unexpected disclosure in the four-page guideline document, obtained by CBC News under the Access to Information Act, is the extent to which public money can underwrite the prime minister's personal travels, such as vacations or trips for the Liberal party.

When traveling, the PM has to be covered by security and the protocol this requires. Whether that be diplomatic or personal travel. Those are rules that have been in place and are accepted taxpayer obligations. Accommodation, while it needs to adhere to security rules, needs to be evaluated considering that issue as well as personal preference - perhaps a 50-50 split on that. Meals, other ancillary travel (aside from a security detail) should be a personal responsibility, paid for by the PM.

Trips for the Liberal Party should be borne solely by the Liberal Party - security detail included.

Too bad we couldn't have similar rules in place here in BC. Especially for the premier's trips for Liberal party photo-ops and bun-tossing events flown in by chartered jet!!

[Veovis]

As for a change, perhaps there should be a set budget for all PM's. There is always a security cost, family cost etc, however perhaps there should be set levels for annual usage of these costs. Much like Healthcare and infrastructure receive a set balance why should a PM be allowed an open wallet of travel.

Now this budget would be certainly in the few millions due to the realistic costs involved but perhaps at some point they then have to start covering costs for business trips that are for 2 meetings and then 4 days of visiting Whistler and things like that.

Don't get me wrong, if they can manage to mix the two events to combine travel costs for PM business and get some personal life experience of the country can minimize the costs, however JT's current image is to schedule a day meeting to get a few days of vacation and call it "work"

A set budget on past historical PM needs for costs with a 20% variance plus inflation should be more than enough to set some form of measure on a PM abusing the system or not......and this really should have existed in this form for a long long time.

Now the rebuttal with quickly be, "but Harper wasn't held to account", and the answer is already known, yes he wasn't, but perhaps he should have been as should all the next ones and the ones before, yet Harper in his first 8 months didn't have numerous selfies from all over the globe either, nor hundreds of extras for the trips.

But changes aren't bad, and setting budgets with flex isn't bad as just being PM shouldn't mean a blank cheque.