Trudeau charges taxpayers $127,000 for holiday

[Merry]

It's not an unfair tax break. It's being portrayed as unfair by people who don't know what they are talking about, consumed by sheer jealousy. Calling it "unfair" is both dishonest and horrible.

Oh give it a rest GB. I'm not "consumed by jealousy" as you seem to think. And I DO know what I'm talking about when it comes to stock options, because my husband has received some of his pay that way in the past, and I do his income tax for him.

Maybe tech companies need the ability to pay their people in this way; I don't know because neither my husband nor I work for one. But I know for a fact that a lot of other companies pay a significant portion of their executive staff using this method, and the end result is people on six figure incomes paying a much lower tax rate than they otherwise would.

Such folks receive a large enough base salary that they do not have to exercise their options in years when it is not lucrative enough for them to do so, but they make hundreds of thousands in other years. All payable at a much lower tax rate than regular income.

You can do what I did and research the names of some top mining executives, and see the names of folks who have been paid over $400,000 in stock options as part of their salary. Why would folks with such high incomes need a tax break that ensures they pay a lot less tax than they would if they were paid using the same method as most of their employees?

If we want to allow folks a bit of a break on a much smaller amount of stock options, as an incentive to do good work, I wouldn't object to that as much. But allowing folks earning over $600,000 a year to get a massive tax break on $400,000 of it is just plain wrong.

Maybe you don't mind paying more than your fair share so that rich folk can pay a bit less, but I'm tired of it.

[The Green Barbarian]

And I DO know what I'm talking about when it comes to stock options, because my husband has received some of his pay that way in the past, and I do his income tax for him.
.

You have no clue what you are talking about, and that much is extremely evident. What I don't understand is why you care that thousands of Canadians receive the same tax treatment on their stock options as people get on their capital gains. It's tax policy that makes sense, and isn't unfair in any way. If you aren't extremely jealous and consumed by envy, then what other possible reason could you be against something you don't even understand?

[Chyren]

Remember when this was about a holiday?

[fvkasm2x]

f9r contrast it costs americans 3 million everytime trump goes to maro lago . christy clark has spent 15 million on partisan adds with taxmoney . jt trip is smaĺ potatos and not worth making a thread about wadr

OH LOOK!

Yet another person saying "Well Trump's a bigger idiot, so we should just take it with a grain of salt."

I think I'm going to just start pointing out every time someone on the left tries to draw attention away from a JT mistake by pointing out a "bigger" mistake by someone else in an attempt to justify it.

[Rwede]

Rona says:

What does this budget mean for a hard working taxpayer? Let’s call him Joe. Joe takes the bus to work every day, at the end of the day he likes to go out with his buddies for a beer and Joe’s a responsible guy so he always takes an Uber home.

So what does this budget do to Joe?
- It taxes his bus pass by taking away the public transit tax credit
- It taxes the beer he has at the pub
- It slaps a tax on his Uber

The same budget includes $1700 worth of drinks and snacks during the Prime Minister’s three hour flight to a private island get-a-way over the holidays.

What message does Justin Trudeau think he’s sending to hard working taxpayers like Joe when he raises his taxes, while helping himself to free drinks on the house?

[Barney Google]

What message does Justin Trudeau think he’s sending to hard working taxpayers like Joe when he raises his taxes, while helping himself to free drinks on the house?

message Joe gets is..

He can gets to know that a weeks worth of his wages is spent so JT can have bevvies and snackies on a swanky trip

while he, Joe, will have to walk home and gets a treat of saltine crackers and tap water to wash them down with.

Ain't life a party?

It is if you're JT.

Not so much for Joe.

[maryjane48]

I think I'm going to just start pointing out every time someone on the left tries to draw attention away from a JT mistake by pointing out a "bigger" mistake by someone else in an attempt to justify it


so i take it your going vote ndp in bc and next fed elections then? if that is truly your feelings.

[Merry]

Rona says:

What does this budget mean for a hard working taxpayer? Let’s call him Joe. Joe takes the bus to work every day, at the end of the day he likes to go out with his buddies for a beer and Joe’s a responsible guy so he always takes an Uber home.

So what does this budget do to Joe?
- It taxes his bus pass by taking away the public transit tax credit
- It taxes the beer he has at the pub
- It slaps a tax on his Uber

The same budget includes $1700 worth of drinks and snacks during the Prime Minister’s three hour flight to a private island get-a-way over the holidays.

What message does Justin Trudeau think he’s sending to hard working taxpayers like Joe when he raises his taxes, while helping himself to free drinks on the house?

The message he is sending is that he considers himself to be a member of a privileged class who is "entitled" to such perks at taxpayer's expense.

[Barney Google]

Oh dear...CBC is reporting this morning that there are further concerns coming to light over expenses from the Island

excursion paid directly to Aga Khan.

Additionally, RCMP as well had expenses during the fated trip but are, at this time, not fully

disclosing those citing security concerns.

[krocky]

I was walking through the Penticton Hospital yesterday, walking past huge line-ups of people waiting on stretchers in the halls, waiting for blood tests and x-rays. One young lady was at the counter saying she had been waiting for hours and was "abruptly" told, well sometimes we get behind, you'll just have to wait.

Then I remembered this thread and reading about how we taxpayers paid $127,000 dollars for Trudeau and his cronies to take a nice little vacation on a private island.

It just made me so PROUD to be a Canadian and glad we have elected such a "caring" person to lead us. I'm just so glad we don't have someone like that Trump jerk trying to put Canadians first, can you imagine..???

[Omnitheo]

In 2016, total health expenditure in Canada is expected to reach $228 billion, or $6,299 per person. It is anticipated that, overall, health spending will represent 11% of Canada's gross domestic product (GDP).

https://www.cihi.ca/en/health-spending

Please don't act like Canada is putting a vacation ahead of healthcare spending.
Even if $127k of taxpayer dollars went towards funding it (and keeping in mind that security costs are already budgeted for prime minister) please don't act like 0.00005% of our annual health care spending going to the security of the PM on a vacation would have gotten anyone through hospital lines sooner.

Oh and also since your brought Trump up, try and remember that Trump and his party have been trying to take away healthcare from citizens and have voted to cut health spending

[Rwede]

Folks, it just keeps getting better.


Aga Khan reimbursed for cost of staffer stay on Bahamas island during Trudeau trip


'It stinks, the whole thing stinks,' says NDP MP Nathan Cullen

By Elizabeth Thompson, CBC News Posted: Apr 04, 2017 5:00 AM ET Last Updated: Apr 04, 2017 5:18 AM ET


Some of the money taxpayers paid as a result of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's controversial Bahamas vacation went to a billionaire Trudeau has described as a close family friend.

Money listed in documents tabled in the House of Commons as "per diems" for a tour technician who accompanied the prime minister was actually paid to the Aga Khan who owns Bell Island.

"The $1,604 is the total amount paid to the owner of Bell Island for the technician's 12 day stay ($100 US x 12 days)," wrote Privy Council spokesman Raymond Rivet following questions from CBC News.

The $1,604 was part of the $127,000 that Trudeau's vacation ended up costing the government.

Conservative MP Tony Clement, a former president of the Treasury Board, which oversees expense account policy for the government, said the revelation adds to the unanswered questions and ethical issues swirling around Trudeau's trip.

"To have the costs paid directly to the owner of the island, the Aga Khan, is highly unusual," he said. "In fact, I've never heard of a case of that happening before."

NDP MP Nathan Cullen said Trudeau's choice to vacation on a billionaire's private island raises questions.

"It stinks, the whole thing stinks," said NDP MP Nathan Cullen.

The revelation that the government reimbursed the Aga Khan for at least one government employee's stay on his island highlights the complications inherent in Trudeau's decision to vacation on the Aga Khan's Caribbean island during the Christmas holidays.

For example, government employees are entitled to claim per diems to cover meals and incidentals when they travel on government business. However, they are not entitled to claim meal per diems if meals are provided.

Accepting meals and accommodation from someone who has a foundation that gets government grants and which lobbies government officials raises ethical questions. However, reimbursing the costs means that taxpayer's money went to a friend of Trudeau's family.

Moreover, the money paid by the Privy Council may not be the only money paid to the Aga Khan.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police has refused to say how its officers who accompanied Trudeau spent $53,253 on "travel, accommodation and per diems," arguing it could jeopardize the prime minister's security. The RCMP spent another $18,735 on overtime and shift differentials for the officers.


SNIPPPPPPPPPPPPP


Clement said reimbursing the Aga Khan sets a potentially dangerous precedent.

"If it were the case that an outside organization can merely bill the government for perceived costs associated with a government employee being around, you could imagine where this would lead. It would lead to inflated bills that would not be in any way verifiable or justifiable."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau ... -1.4053585

[krocky]

Please don't act like Canada is putting a vacation ahead of healthcare spending.
Even if $127k of taxpayer dollars went towards funding it (and keeping in mind that security costs are already budgeted for prime minister) please don't act like 0.00005% of our annual health care spending going to the security of the PM on a vacation would have gotten anyone through hospital lines sooner.

Oh and also since your brought Trump up, try and remember that Trump and his party have been trying to take away healthcare from citizens and have voted to cut health spending

Please don't act like it isn't blatant disrespect for tax payers that our Prime Mister squanders hundreds of thousands of dollars on himself and his cronies. Vacations, 3 or 4 LUXURY retreats for "bonding", swimming pools, clothing for his wife, trips to plays in NEW YORK to ogle Ivanka Trump in the name of "representing" Canada. ..

Why is it that as soon as they get elected Politicians seem to think that tax dollars become their "personal" spending accounts. We all have to use our own money for our personal entertainment but not the Prime Minister, we the tax payers OWE him a good time, after all he did make a bunch of promises he never intends to keep, that my friend, is the POINT..

So, you can bet your sweet bippy that if JT were to mail a cheque to the Penticton Hospital for the amount of his "PLAY" money, the lines would be shorter, a whole lot shorter.

[Barney Google]

Once again, JT's holiday jaunt to the Bahamas is in the news citing that the price tag has gone up..again.

The more I read about this the more my knickers twist a little.

A Trudeau 'close long time personal family friend' receives funds from the coffers Canadian Taxpayers and

JT takes his family and buddies on a vac-cay to that 'family friend's' private paradise...

Lol...yep, nothing to see here...move along folks.

[Rwede]

And, you guessed it, Trudeau lied his *bleep* off when questioned about his "requirement" to use Aga's private helicopter, illegally of course.



Cost of Trudeau's Bahamas vacations mounts

Technician's chartered seaplane raises questions about Trudeau's use of Aga Khan's helicopter

By Elizabeth Thompson, CBC News Posted: Apr 11, 2017 5:00 AM ET Last Updated: Apr 11, 2017 5:20 AM ET


Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's vacation to the Aga Khan's private island in the Bahamas cost taxpayers more than the government revealed to Parliament, CBC News has learned.

In addition to the initial $127,187 disclosed in documents tabled in the House of Commons, the government spent $6,695 to transport a Privy Council Office technician from Nassau to Bell Island by seaplane along with 400 pounds of equipment.

That brings the total cost to taxpayers as a result of Trudeau's vacation to the exclusive island to $133,883.

The revelation also raises questions about Trudeau's explanation for why he travelled from Nassau to Bell Island aboard the Aga Khan's private helicopter.

Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson is conducting an investigation following complaints about the trip and allegations that Trudeau violated government rules, which prohibit the prime minister, cabinet ministers and parliamentary secretaries from accepting free travel on non-commercial chartered or private aircraft without prior approval from the ethics commissioner.

As prime minister, Trudeau is also restricted for security reasons to travelling on government of Canada aircraft — even when on vacation.

Trudeau has defended the decision to hop aboard the Aga Khan's helicopter, insisting it was the only way to get to Bell Island.

"The travel back and forth from Nassau to the island happens on the Aga Khan's private helicopter, which he offered us the use of," Trudeau told reporters in Kingston, Ont., on Jan. 12.

"The fact is, as I have said many times, the Aga Khan is a personal family friend and travel to and from the island only happens through private means," he later added.



Bahamas seaplane
This seaplane ferried a Privy Council technician from Nassau to the Aga Khan's private Bell Island. (Bahamasrentalvacations.com)

The technician, however, made the same trip from Nassau to Bell Island aboard a commercially chartered Cessna 208 seaplane. The nine-seat aircraft, which has flown to Bell Island on other occasions, takes about 30 minutes to ferry passengers from Nassau to the island.

Trudeau has come under fire in the House of Commons for the trip and for his office's initial refusal to disclose where he was vacationing.


http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau ... -1.4064213