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Regardless of assertions by a cupboard minister that summer season highway journeys trigger wildfires, slightly below half of the practically 182,000 kilometres flown by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau up to now this yr came about through the previous three months.
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Information from publicly-accessible flight trackers reveals Trudeau flew 92,100 kilometres on government-owned plane from June 1-Sept. 12 — primarily aboard one of many RCAF’s 4 Bombardier Challenger 650 enterprise jets.
To this point in 2024, the PM logged 181,950 kilometres in flights, unfold throughout round 68 flight cycles (a departure adopted by a touchdown.)
Deputy Conservative Chief Melissa Lantzman informed The Toronto Solar the PM’s travels are an insult to Canadians who — because of the continued cost-of-living and affordability disaster — couldn’t afford to go wherever this summer season.
“Whereas some journey is critical for a first-rate minister, Justin Trudeau has already proven Canadians that he by no means misses a chance to go on lavish journeys and rub shoulders with elites all over the world at taxpayer expense, whereas ignoring the struggling he’s inflicting at house in Canada,” she stated.
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“What’s worse, is that whereas the Liberals had been busy saying Canadians who take their households on highway journeys and summer season holidays are responsible of burning down the world, the Liberals had been racking up 1000’s of kilometres of jetsetting carbon hypocrisy.”
A Conservative authorities, she stated, would “show respect” in the case of authorities journey.
The PM’s longest flight was June 12 — eight hours and 11 minutes, from Ottawa to Taranto, Italy, for the G7 summit, a 7,100-kilometre journey.
His longest inside Canada was a four-hour, 33-minute flight on Feb. 21, from Edmonton to Sydney, N.S. — a complete of about 3,800 kilometres.
That was intently adopted by a July 21 flight from Ottawa to Tofino, B.C., for the PM’s summer season trip.
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The shortest flight of the yr — 53 kilometres, from a Liberal retreat in Nanaimo, B.C., to Vancouver — came about Sept. 11. On Feb. 1, he flew 66 kilometres on a 14-minute flight from Pearson airport in Mississauga to Waterloo.
The roughly 45-minute hop between Ottawa and Toronto was the PM’s most-travelled route, with 32 separate flights this yr.
Forty-seven had been flights underneath 400 kilometres., together with a 197-kilometre post-vacation flight from Tofino to Vancouver on Aug. 1, a 200 kilometre same-day spherical journey between Ottawa and CFB Trenton, and 240 kilometres from Ottawa to Peterborough on Feb. 8.
Whereas official prices for the RCAF’s Challenger 650 fleet aren’t out there, authorities tables from 2019 checklist working prices for the now-decommissioned (and less-efficient) Challenger 601s at $17,000 per hour, consuming 1,260 litres of jet gas hourly.
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Requests to DND for up to date value tables weren’t returned by press time.
Regardless of assurances {that a} response would come, the Solar’s affords to the PMO for remark went unanswered. Affords to the NDP for remark likewise went unacknowledged.
Spadina-Fort York MP Kevin Vuong stated that whereas prime ministers want safe journey, questions of hypocrisy are inevitable.
“It has turn into painfully clear to Canadians that ‘guidelines for thee, not for me’ is the unofficial slogan that guides Justin Trudeau,” the unbiased MP stated.
Inexperienced Celebration Chief Elizabeth Could informed the Solar she doesn’t fault Trudeau for needing to fly, however accused the Liberals of sidelining local weather points.
“My greatest criticism with Liberal hypocrisy isn’t that the prime minister flies round rather a lot, is that he buys pipelines,” she stated, referring to the 2018 Trans Mountain pipeline buy.
“It’s a local weather crime to spice up greenhouse fuel manufacturing from the oilsands by constructing a pipeline the non-public sector had determined was not worthwhile.”
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