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0 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is flying in and out of Bermuda on Wednesday, where he will deliver a eulogy at the funeral for Peter Green, a close family friend.
Trudeaus have been friends with the Green family since the 1970s. Pierre Trudeau was godfather to Peter Green’s son Alexander, who delivered a reading at Trudeau’s funeral in Montréal.
Pierre Trudeau also spoke at the funeral of Peter Green’s wife in Edmonton in 1990, following her death from cancer at the age of 38.
This past Christmas, Trudeau and his family stayed at the Prospect Estate resort near Ocho Rios in Jamaica that was owned by Green.
The Prospect Estate is legendary among some of the wealthiest and most powerful families around the world. Over the decades, dignitaries like Winston Churchill, Henry Kissinger and Prince Phillip have stayed there, sometimes planting a tree in memory of their visit.
The PMO initially said Justin Trudeau paid for his family’s accommodations during the Christmas trip in 2023, a stay that some have estimated to be worth as much as $84,000. His office later said the family stayed for free at Green’s resort.
The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) told Radio-Canada that the conflict of interest and ethics commissioner was consulted before the Jamaica trip to ensure all rules were respected and was given the green light.
Ethics commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein told a parliamentary committee that the rules that governing gifts and travel MPs can accept include exceptions for gifts and travel offered by friends or family.
“What we have here is clearly a generous gift between people who are friends and I don’t see why, just because they are well-off, they can’t exchange gifts,” von Finckenstein said of the trip.
The ethics commissioner was not consulted on the Bermuda trip because the prime minister will not be accepting any gifts while in the country.
The PMO said that Trudeau “will pay the equivalent of a commercial airline ticket for his personal travel and that of his accompanying family members” who fly on the government plane. For security reasons, Trudeau does not fly commercial.
Costs of Jamaica trip to visit Greens
While the accommodations for the trip were a gift, the prime minister’s 10-day family vacation to the island still cost taxpayers $230,442.
According to documents tabled in the House, the largest single expense for the Jamaica trip was $162,051 for the RCMP officers who accompanied the Trudeau family.
The trip was particularly costly because the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) plane that brought the family to Jamaica had mechanical problems, forcing the CAF to send a second plane with a crew to fix it.
The documents tabled in the House report that the second plane accounted for $20,835 of the $57,553 the trip cost the armed forces.
A Privy Council Office (PCO) employee charged with ensuring the prime minister had access to secure communications cost taxpayers an additional $10,838.
Pierre Trudeau stayed at the Prospect Estate for the first time in 1975 during an official stay in Jamaica.
In 2021, the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation announced that a donation from the Green family made it possible to establish the Mary-Jean Mitchell Green Scholarship, in memory of their mother.
The Foundation’s leadership scholarships fund doctoral research. Scholars can receive a maximum of $180,000 over three years to cover things like tuition fees, research and travel.
NDP deputy leader Alexandre Boulerice sent his condolences to Trudeau over the loss of his friend, but questioned the prime minister’s use of a Challenger jet to attend the funeral.
“Whether it’s for Trudeau or [Stephen] Harper before him, the personal use of the Challenger aircraft should be reimbursed in full,” Boulerice told CBC News. “Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen this kind of behaviour — Trudeau doesn’t seem to be taking lessons from his past mistakes.”
