Canadian taxpayers paid an average of over $1,500 a week for Trudeau’s household grocery bill over two years, according to access-to-information documents obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
According to the records, Trudeau racked up $97,645 in grocery expenses, with taxpayers forced to pay $81,428 in the 2022-2023 fiscal year. The year prior, he spent $91,218 in grocery expenses, billing taxpayers $76,214.
Together, Trudeau spent $188,864 on “food and food preparation” over the course of the two fiscal years, sticking Canadians with a grocery tab of $157,642.
A Canada Food Price report said the average Canadian spent a combined $29,989 on groceries during the 2022 and 2023 calendar years. According to CTF calculations, that adds up to an approximate $288 per week.
Conversely, Trudeau’s weekly tax paid bill to Canadians amounted to an average of $1,515 in household food expenses.
“Taxpayers should not be paying a single cent for a prime minister’s personal groceries,” Franco Terrazzano, the federal director for the CTF, told True North. “Prime ministers take a huge taxpayer-funded salary, and they can pay for their own groceries like everyone else.”
The prime minister’s annual salary is $406,200. According to Statistics Canada data, the average Canadian worker’s annual salary is about $70,000.
In the access-to-information request, the tax advocates asked the government to include Trudeau’s Rideau Cottage and Harrington Lake residences.
The documents from the Privy Council Office state that there’s been a “longstanding practice” since 1985 where the prime minister reimburses amounts related to food based on Statistics Canada data on household spending, which is adjusted using the consumer price index to account for inflation.
The records also include expenditures for events hosted at his residence. It is unclear how much of the expenses were for official functions versus personal consumption.
“The government owes taxpayers a clear answer to this simple question: what is being spent on the prime minister’s personal groceries and what is being spent on official government business?” Terrazzano said.
Trudeau’s office did not respond to True North’s request to comment.
“Taxpayers have no idea how much of our money is going toward the prime minister’s personal groceries versus what is spent for official government events,” Terrazzano said. “It’s our money, but Trudeau is leaving taxpayers in the dark.”
He said that “anyone who wants to be the next prime minister” owes taxpayers full transparency, and they should be able to give taxpayers a clear answer. He also said the leaders of the various parties “must commit” to not billing taxpayers for personal groceries if they become prime minister.
Deputy Conservative leader Melissa Lantsman told True North that under a Conservative government, Canadians wouldn’t be on the hook for the prime minister’s grocery bill.
“Like most Canadians, Pierre Poilievre and his family do not have their groceries paid for by taxpayers,” she said in an email. “Common Sense Conservatives will treat every tax dollar with the respect it deserves.”
Lantsman wasn’t surprised however to learn that Trudeau was sticking Canadians with such a high price tag bill.
“Liberal waste and hypocrisy knows no bounds, after hitting the grocery bills of Canadians with their massive carbon tax and endless inflationary deficits, now they are making taxpayers foot the bill for their own food,” She said. “Unfortunately, things will get even worse with Carbon Tax Carney who doesn’t even know what a basket of groceries costs.”
She called on Liberal Leadership frontrunner Mark Carney to commit to the same, though Carney did not respond to True North’s requests to comment.
“Unfortunately Carney is in hiding and refusing to face journalists,” Lantsman said. “Carney has no regard for struggling Canadians who are being crushed by his costly carbon tax and policies that have driven up the cost of food, doubled housing costs, and doubled the inflationary debt.”
Conservatives criticized Carney Friday for “dodging accountability” and refusing to answer journalists of all stripes on apparent discrepancies in his statements on the campaign trail.