While many food bank shelves lay bare due to the ever growing demand, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Indo-Pacific trip racked up a food bill of over $223,000 in airplane catering alone.
Trudeau took a trip to Singapore last fall to meet with business leaders and the president of Indonesia before attending a G20 summit in India.
The total expense of the trip was nearly $2 million, but it was the catering that took the biggest bite.
Initially said to be around $180,000, a response to an order paper question in the House of Commons later revealed the final airplane catering bill to be $223,234.
The Royal Canadian Air Force CC-150 carried as many as 72 passengers during one leg of its journey over the six-day trip. On one flight alone, the catering bill was $85,000, or at least $1180.55 per person, assuming that bill corresponded with the 72-passenger flight.
Other flights had just 37 passengers on board at one time.
Trudeau and his entourage were served a selection of pan fried beef tenderloin with port wine sauce and beef brisket with mashed parsley potatoes with truffle oil.
However, if one wasn’t in the mood for beef, they could enjoy the braised lamb shanks with steamed broccoli and boiled baby potatoes.
The gourmet meals were capped with slices of baked cheesecake with pistachio brittle.
All to be washed down with Flow water, a premium brand of boxed alkaline spring water.
Flow water is a personal favourite of Trudeau’s, making regular appearances on his personal grocery expenses.
It’s a brand possibly not known by the middle class, nor those working hard to join it.
“This should go without saying, but the feds shouldn’t be billing taxpayers hundreds of thousands for airplane food when many Canadians can’t afford their own grocery haul,” Franco Terrazzano, federal director for the Canadian Taxpayer Federation, told True North.
Food Banks Canada has been warning of low stock for the past year as more and more Canadians depend on the donations of others to put food on the table.
The problem has gotten so bad that one in five Canadians now have an acquaintance who had to resort to using food banks to meet their needs, according to a new national survey.
Nanos Research conducted the survey between May 31 and June 2 and found that while only 2% of respondents said that they had used food banks themselves, nearly twice as many knew of a family member who had.
“In March 2023, there were almost 2 million visits to food banks across Canada, representing a 32 per cent increase compared to March 2022, and a 78.5% increase compared to March 2019, which is the highest year-over-year increase in usage ever reported,” reads Food Banks Canada’s latest report released on Tuesday.
The report projects that one in four Canadians may soon be living below the poverty line, based on its Material Deprivation Index.
“The government told taxpayers it would cut down on these extravagant trips, but dropping more than $200,000 on airplane food doesn’t exactly scream fiscal responsibility,” said Terrazzano.
“Struggling Canadians have every right to be furious with the Trudeau government for spending six-figures on airplane food.”