Stephen Harper’s northern tour cost taxpayers $786,000

Locutus

Locutus

Adorable Deplorable
Jun 18, 2007
32,230
46
48
66
progs is mad again.

 
mentalfloss

mentalfloss

Prickly Curmudgeon Smiter
Jun 28, 2010
39,794
460
83
Corduroy said:
$68.13? Doesn't seem like a very large bill to me. Maybe for one person. Maybe in a place that doesn't have an astronomical high cost of living.
Click to expand...

The 70k but that includes accommodation.

Still, there doesn't seem to be any practical value in this trip.
 
Walter

Walter

Hall of Fame Member
Jan 28, 2007
34,871
116
63
Poor Analfloss thinks we shouldn't spend any money on the PM's travels.
 
whitedog

whitedog

It''s our duty, vote.
Mar 13, 2006
128
0
16
mentalfloss said:
Stephen Harper’s northern tour cost taxpayers $786,000

OTTAWA—Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s six-day trip to Canada’s North in August cost taxpayers over $786,000.
Documents tabled in Parliament this week show that RCMP security for Harper’s annual trip came in at $252,921 alone, including overtime, accommodations and meals.

The Privy Council Office — the department that supports the prime minister — estimated its share of the cost at $165,392. That appears to include everything from expenses for the Prime Minister’s Office staff, including the prime minister’s official photographer and communications staff, to a claim for a $69.13 dinner at “Yummy Shawarma” in Iqaluit.

The numbers do not include the salaries of the bureaucrats, political staff and police accompanying Harper on the trip.

The price tag is sure to raise eyebrows among critics of Harper’s annual northern sojourn, who have accused the prime minister of using it as a taxpayer-funded photo op.

“People should know what it costs for him to bring his entourage in,” said NDP MP Dennis Bevington (Northwest Territories), who requested a breakdown of the trip’s cost.

“We have people that are going hungry in the North, because there’s not enough money in the Nutrition North program. It’s really, I mean this is a very large amount of money.”

But Harper’s director of communications, Jason MacDonald, defended the cost of the trip, saying the prime minister is “proud” to travel to different parts of Canada.

“As these numbers demonstrate, it is expensive to operate in Canada’s North,” MacDonald wrote in an email.

“To suggest that money spent profiling and celebrating Canada’s Northern communities is somehow a poor investment demonstrates that only our government can be trusted to protect and advance the needs of Northern and rural Canadians. We will not ignore 40 per cent of Canada simply because it’s expensive to get to.”

Harper began his trip in Whitehorse on Aug. 20, before travelling to Fort Smith, N.W.T., and Cambridge Bay and Pond Inlet in Nunavut. Over the course of the first few days, Harper had a handful of public events and took around eight questions from reporters.

When he arrived in Pond Inlet, Harper boarded HMCS Kingston, which was in the North to take part in the search for the Franklin Expedition. Media and staff were transported to the CCGS Des Groseilliers, to sail to Arctic Bay. Harper had no public events at Arctic Bay, and quickly boarded a Hercules aircraft to travel back to Pond Inlet.

No cost was provided for the Kingston’s trip, but the Des Groseilliers cost $62,800 alone. That includes a 12-minute, $582 trip for Harper’s official photographer on a helicopter, after the Kingston and the icebreaker stopped to survey a large iceberg.

The costs also do not include one of the most impressive backdrops on Harper’s trip, the Canadian Forces’ annual northern exercises, dubbed Operation Nanook. While not technically part of the cost of the trip, taxpayers were still billed $164 for one Fisheries and Oceans media liaison during the operation.

Media outlets following Harper, including the Star, paid their own way on the trip.

$786,442 – Total cost of the trip, not including salaries
$81,392 – Overtime, meals, accommodation and travel for RCMP officers on Aug. 22 in Fort Smith, N.W.T.
2,500 – Estimated population of Fort Smith, N.W.T.
$116,640 – Total cost of flights on government Airbus during the trip for media, staff, delegates.
$880 – Cost of 60 military meal rations handed out at York Sound, Nunavut.
$69.13 – Bill at Iqaluit’s “Yummy Shawarma.”

http://m.thestar.com/#/article/news...pers_northern_tour_cost_taxpayers_786000.html
Click to expand...
It would not have been any cheaper if a NDP, Green Or Lib PM went there. That said, this big Mac working for the PM should be sat down and told that most Canadians can accept the truth, not his profile/celebrate the dribble. How about increasing the northerners tax credit if you really want to celebrate those that live in the expensive north. What a bimbo.
 
taxslave

taxslave

Hall of Fame Member
Nov 25, 2008
36,362
4,340
113
Vancouver Island
waldo said:
guys, guys... why are you attempting to distract from the total costs? The linked article offers distinction between "police' salaries not being included and RCMP expenses inclusive of overtime... overtime, which isn't salary. Documents were tabled... you need to get after those documents to show your attempted distraction has any merit! Get to it, chop, chop!!!

​
Click to expand...

What is there to distract from? That is not extravagant by any means and all spent in Canada. The same people that ate whining about this are also the first to complain the PM doesn't get around or is not in touch with ordinary Canadians. Well these are ordinary Canadians as opposed to the yuppies in Toronto and Vancouver.
 
whitedog

whitedog

It''s our duty, vote.
Mar 13, 2006
128
0
16
taxslave said:
What is there to distract from? That is not extravagant by any means and all spent in Canada. The same people that ate whining about this are also the first to complain the PM doesn't get around or is not in touch with ordinary Canadians. Well these are ordinary Canadians as opposed to the yuppies in Toronto and Vancouver.
Click to expand...
Ordinary Canadians? Are you suggesting the ones in Toronto are super Canadians? Like Canadians with special powers like spiderman and batman? Or do you mean the "ordinary" ones are just poor dumb fuc*s that deserve a little lovin? Its the cost of the PM moving about the country. Leave it at that.
 
taxslave

taxslave

Hall of Fame Member
Nov 25, 2008
36,362
4,340
113
Vancouver Island
whitedog said:
Ordinary Canadians? Are you suggesting the ones in Toronto are super Canadians? Like Canadians with special powers like spiderman and batman? Or do you mean the "ordinary" ones are just poor dumb fuc*s that deserve a little lovin? Its the cost of the PM moving about the country. Leave it at that.
Click to expand...

No the yups in the city are by no stretch of the imagination normal people. But they are always a source of amusement.
 
darkbeaver

darkbeaver

the universe is electric
Jan 26, 2006
41,035
201
63
RR1 Distopia 666 Discordia
Corduroy said:
I don't see any problem with the PM touring the country. The north is an often overlooked part of the country.
Click to expand...

Overlooked eh, in the event of hostilities, which are concievable at this time, the north is, you can see Russia from the north. Fortress north america, the papers were signed years ago. Harper was inspecting the real estate for missile batteries and he wants a piece of Putin, when will the great rush from central America even out the continental mix? It's not his country any more or mine we singed every thing away including the oil the water the bases in time of war


The Arctic ice mass will be able support tanks sometime in february, the Russians will just drive millions of tanks. I four subs can't stop them I'm afraid, and it's Harpers fault, he should have kept his mouth shut at the G20. I think the travel expenses of Mr Harper should be quadrupled, that's got rupel in it, enough to get him to Moscow where he can do the machjo thing and kick the door in at Putins apartment.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom