The House of Commons ethics committee will debate Wednesday whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s holiday in Jamaica warrants a study.
The committee is set to meet at 10:30 a.m. Eastern at the request of Conservative MPs Michael Barrett, Jacques Gourde, Damien Kurek and Bloc Quebecois MP Rene Villemure.
In a letter addressed to the committee’s chair, the MPs said that Trudeau’s vacation to the Caribbean nation raises “red flags” under Canada’s ethics rules, and that the committee should meet on the matter despite MPs being on holiday break until Jan. 29.
“Serious questions have been raised over the Prime Minister’s trip to Jamaica and if it breaks Canada’s ethics laws,” they said.
“Canadians struggling in a cost-of-living crisis that scraped by this holiday season want answers on the Prime Minister’s vacation, and rightfully so.”
The Tories have called for an investigation into Trudeau’s trip in Jamaica with his three children and former spouse Sophie Grégoire-Trudeau.
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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 interim ethics commissioner Konrad 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,” said the prime minister’s press secretary Mohammad Hussain 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 goes 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.”
The ethics commissioner also cleared that trip.
— with files from Global News’ Sean Previl and The Canadian Press
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