According to the Prime Minister's Office, this amount covered transportation costs (flights and cars), accommodation and other living expenses for Mr. Legault and three delegates. Mr. Legault took advantage of his stay in Paris to rub shoulders with personalities such as the President-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, the CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, and the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
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This text is a translation of a CTV News article.
In October, the government spent an additional $233,300 to send Mr. Legault and Martine Biron, the minister of International Relations and La Francophonie, to Paris for six days for the Francophonie Summit. This amount also includes the 10 delegates that the ministers took with them.
During this summit, Mr. Legault met French politicians and business leaders, spoke with UNESCO ambassadors about the accessibility of digital cultural content in the French language and “consolidated the political and economic ties of Quebec with the 92 other member states and governments of the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF),” according to his office.
Furthermore, Mr. Biron co-chaired a meeting with the board of directors of the Office franco-québécois pour la jeunesse and participated in discussions aimed at reiterating Quebec's continued commitment and support for the projects implemented by the OIF to promote the French language.
The Prime Minister's Office says it proactively published travel costs on Friday to ensure transparency.
Nicolas Gagnon, Quebec director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, explained that the high bills deserve closer examination. He said spending $35,000 for a one-night stay for three people is “obviously a lot of money.”
“We do not know where they stayed, nor what they ate, nor who accompanied them, nor what type of accommodation was paid for,” he stressed, adding that there were surely ways to reduce costs.
However, Mr. Gagnon said he understood the importance of the “geopolitical context in which Mr. Legault really wanted to meet other world leaders” like Mr. Trump at a critical moment and that “there could be a return on investment for taxpayers for this type of event.
Mr. Gagnon said he had a bigger problem with the money spent on the October summit.
“We spent over $233,000 on a 12-person delegation for six days. This makes no sense, it should have been reduced by half,” he denounced.
It is worth asking why there were so many delegates on this trip and what Quebecers will get out of it in the long term, he added.
“We do not know exactly how the summit will benefit both the Francophonie in Quebec and abroad,” added Mr. Gagnon.
“Are these trips really necessary all the time? Yes, on certain occasions, like the inauguration of Notre-Dame de Paris, there is a context for that… but on other trips, it is worth wondering if there might not be other ways to hold or attend these summits, perhaps virtually.”
