RESPEC for da taxpayers y'all
Stephen Harper gives pricey free ride home to European leaders
Prime Minister Stephen Harper gave visiting European delegates a free flight home to Brussels last week, after adding a Toronto reception to their schedule, CBC News has learned.
That reception made it impossible for the visitors to make a planned commercial flight from Ottawa, and thereby get to a Saturday meeting in Brussels. The cost of the Airbus flight is estimated at more than $300,000.
The prime minister's spokesman, Jason MacDonald, described the free flight as "a courtesy" to ensure the summit would not be "cut short."
But the summit was held in Ottawa and the only event on the schedule in Toronto was a reception attended by Harper, the EU dignitaries and several hundred representatives of the business community.
Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, and Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, were in Ottawa Friday to sign a free-trade agreement between Canada and the European Union.
They were greeted with a ceremonial military guard on Parliament Hill. The two European leaders normally fly commercial and arrived in Ottawa on an Air Canada flight from the United Nations meeting in New York.
However, just four days before the summit, the Harper government added a reception for the Toronto business community to the itinerary — meaning the visiting delegation would miss their flight to Brussels. For that reason, Harper offered them the Canadian Forces Airbus he normally uses himself on foreign trips.
http://www.cbc.ca/m/news/politics/s...-free-ride-home-to-european-leaders-1.2780754
Stephen Harper gives pricey free ride home to European leaders
Prime Minister Stephen Harper gave visiting European delegates a free flight home to Brussels last week, after adding a Toronto reception to their schedule, CBC News has learned.
That reception made it impossible for the visitors to make a planned commercial flight from Ottawa, and thereby get to a Saturday meeting in Brussels. The cost of the Airbus flight is estimated at more than $300,000.
The prime minister's spokesman, Jason MacDonald, described the free flight as "a courtesy" to ensure the summit would not be "cut short."
But the summit was held in Ottawa and the only event on the schedule in Toronto was a reception attended by Harper, the EU dignitaries and several hundred representatives of the business community.
Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, and Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, were in Ottawa Friday to sign a free-trade agreement between Canada and the European Union.
They were greeted with a ceremonial military guard on Parliament Hill. The two European leaders normally fly commercial and arrived in Ottawa on an Air Canada flight from the United Nations meeting in New York.
However, just four days before the summit, the Harper government added a reception for the Toronto business community to the itinerary — meaning the visiting delegation would miss their flight to Brussels. For that reason, Harper offered them the Canadian Forces Airbus he normally uses himself on foreign trips.
http://www.cbc.ca/m/news/politics/s...-free-ride-home-to-european-leaders-1.2780754
