Canada’s interim ethics commissioner was summoned on Wednesday to appear at the House of Commons ethics committee amid scrutiny about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s holiday in Jamaica.
Konrad von Finckenstein will appear at the committee at the earliest opportunity once the House of Commons resumes following winter break on Jan. 29.
MPs on the committee requested a meeting during the break to potentially study the trip. Conservative MPs Michael Barrett, Jacques Gourde and Damien Kurek and Bloc Québécois MP Rene Villemure said in a letter to the committee’s chair that Trudeau’s vacation to the Caribbean nation raises “red flags” under Canada’s ethics rules.
“This isn’t a question about a prime minister being deserving of a vacation or anyone being deserving of a vacation if they’re able to afford,” Barrett told MPs on the committee Wednesday.
“The problem is that the first answer that the Prime Minister’s Office gave to Canadians about this was that the prime minister was paying for the vacation, and it wasn’t until media followed up and learned about the cost of the destination and asked who was paying for it. The answer was that, in fact, the prime minister was not paying for this.”
The motion passed on Wednesday is to have von Finckenstein talk about rules around gifts, vacation and travel in the Conflict of Interest Act and the code for public office holders.
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A motion to request all materials regarding the prime minister’s two trips to Jamaica be filed with the committee was voted down by the Liberals and NDP.
The Tories have called for an investigation into Trudeau’s trip to Jamaica with his three children and former spouse Sophie Grégoire-Trudeau.
Trudeau returned to Ottawa to face similar criticism for staying at an oceanfront villa in Jamaica at no cost, as reported by the National Post. Rooms go for around $9,300 per night, according to the resort’s website.
Prospect Estate and Villas located near Ocho Rios is owned by businessman Peter Green. The Green family has known the Trudeaus for decades, and Trudeau has faced criticisms and questions about stays at the same resort in the past.
Had Trudeau paid out of pocket, a nine-night stay would appear to be worth roughly $84,000.
In a separate letter to von Finckenstein, Barrett said the resort stay was “not the equivalent of staying at a friend’s home, in a guest house on a wealthy friend’s property, or even a personal home which might be rented out periodically.”
Earlier this month, the Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement on the trip.
“The Prime Minister and his family are staying with family friends at no cost. As per standard practice, the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner was consulted on these details prior to the travel to ensure that the rules were followed,” the prime minister’s press secretary Mohammad Hussain said in an email to Global News Thursday.
The office had also said he would continue to reimburse the equivalent of a commercial airline ticket for his personal travel and that of his family.
In his letter, Barrett raises concerns that as the resort would be “forgoing substantial revenue” by allowing a free-of-charge stay, the holiday was “a gift — and a very substantial gift at that.”
He went on to note that the Conflict of Interest Act makes it clear that no public office holder or family member “shall accept any gift or other advantage … that might reasonably be seen to have been given to influence the public office holder in the exercise of an official power, duty or function.”
Trudeau’s last Caribbean getaway cost taxpayers around $162,000, with most of it going to security and personnel costs for the RCMP and Royal Canadian Air Force.
At the time, the prime minister’s office said he paid the “equivalent of a commercial airline ticket for himself and his family,” which is “standard practice.”
— with files from Global News’ Sean Previl and The Canadian Press
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