Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s six-day Indo-Pacific trip in September 2023 is facing scrutiny due to its high catering costs, amounting to more than $223,000, according to new records. The trip, during which Trudeau met with business leaders in Singapore, the president of Indonesia, and attended the G20 summit in India, had a total cost of nearly $2 million.
The catering costs were initially estimated at around $180,000 but later revealed to be significantly higher. The number of passengers traveling with Trudeau on a Royal Canadian Air Force CC-150 Polaris varied between 37 and 72 across different stages of the trip, with one segment incurring a catering bill of $85,000.
The meals served onboard the plane included high-end dishes such as beef brisket with mashed parsley potatoes and truffle oil, pan-fried beef tenderloin with port wine sauce, braised lamb shanks, and baked cheesecake with pistachio brittle.
And as if the high-end meals weren’t enough, a special request was also reportedly made to stock the plane with Flow Water, a premium alkaline spring water brand reportedly favored by Trudeau.
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The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) has criticized the high catering costs, drawing comparisons to a similar incident involving Governor General Mary Simon’s trip to Dubai in March 2022.
“You shouldn’t need a focus group to recommend telling the prime minister to turn down the baked cheesecake with pistachio brittle when Canadians are lining up around the block at the foodbank,” Franco Terrazzano, CTF’s federal director, told the National Post.
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