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Wary Liberals ready to scrap Clarkson tour
By DREW FAGAN
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
POSTED AT 9:13 AM EST         Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2004
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The government is expected imminently to scrap a second visit to northern Europe planned by Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson and an entourage of prominent Canadians.Federal officials said yesterday that continuing controversy over the $5.3-million price tag of her trip to Russia, Finland and Iceland last fall has made cancellation almost inevitable, especially at a time when the sponsorship scandal has made Ottawa extraordinarily sensitive to any charge that tax money is being misspent or earmarked for what are seen as luxuries.
"The decision has not been made. But do I think the second leg will be cancelled? Yes," a government official said. Another official added that the trip, to Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Greenland, has been caught up in "everything about government spending" that now dominates the political environment in Ottawa.
Isabelle Savard, a spokeswoman for Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham, said no date had yet been set for Ms. Clarkson's second "circumpolar tour," though it had been expected to take place some time this spring or fall. "The planning is still at a very early stage," she said.
Mr. Graham said last week that the three-week trip last fall, which included 59 Canadian politicians and well-known members of the arts community, as well as almost two dozen staff members from Rideau Hall, had been "very expensive" and that efforts had to be taken with the Governor-General to ensure that "we are getting absolute value for everything we do."
Since then, government officials have taken an even closer look at the plans for a second trip, and have quietly made it known that further planning likely would be purposeless.
However, an official said that Rideau Hall had yet to be formally told that the trip was off.
The Foreign Affairs Department covered most of the cost of last fall's trip, which was promoted as an opportunity to raise Canada's profile in other cold-weather countries and focus, as one government official said, "on the northern dimensions of Canadian foreign policy." The trips were first suggested to the Governor-General by former prime minister Jean Chrétien in 2001.
"I'd be disappointed if [the second trip] wasn't cancelled, and it would be to the government's credit if it was," said NDP MP Pat Martin, who has been pushing for a full review of the Governor-General's spending by the Commons government operations and estimates committee. "It is perfectly legitimate to look at this. It was cavalier to approve a trip that cost $5.3-million when basic needs aren't being looked after across the country."
The Governor-General's budget has doubled to about $20-million in recent years, though this does not include millions more covered by other government departments.
© 2004 Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved.
By DREW FAGAN
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
POSTED AT 9:13 AM EST         Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2004
Advertisement
The government is expected imminently to scrap a second visit to northern Europe planned by Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson and an entourage of prominent Canadians.Federal officials said yesterday that continuing controversy over the $5.3-million price tag of her trip to Russia, Finland and Iceland last fall has made cancellation almost inevitable, especially at a time when the sponsorship scandal has made Ottawa extraordinarily sensitive to any charge that tax money is being misspent or earmarked for what are seen as luxuries.
"The decision has not been made. But do I think the second leg will be cancelled? Yes," a government official said. Another official added that the trip, to Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Greenland, has been caught up in "everything about government spending" that now dominates the political environment in Ottawa.
Isabelle Savard, a spokeswoman for Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham, said no date had yet been set for Ms. Clarkson's second "circumpolar tour," though it had been expected to take place some time this spring or fall. "The planning is still at a very early stage," she said.
Mr. Graham said last week that the three-week trip last fall, which included 59 Canadian politicians and well-known members of the arts community, as well as almost two dozen staff members from Rideau Hall, had been "very expensive" and that efforts had to be taken with the Governor-General to ensure that "we are getting absolute value for everything we do."
Since then, government officials have taken an even closer look at the plans for a second trip, and have quietly made it known that further planning likely would be purposeless.
However, an official said that Rideau Hall had yet to be formally told that the trip was off.
The Foreign Affairs Department covered most of the cost of last fall's trip, which was promoted as an opportunity to raise Canada's profile in other cold-weather countries and focus, as one government official said, "on the northern dimensions of Canadian foreign policy." The trips were first suggested to the Governor-General by former prime minister Jean Chrétien in 2001.
"I'd be disappointed if [the second trip] wasn't cancelled, and it would be to the government's credit if it was," said NDP MP Pat Martin, who has been pushing for a full review of the Governor-General's spending by the Commons government operations and estimates committee. "It is perfectly legitimate to look at this. It was cavalier to approve a trip that cost $5.3-million when basic needs aren't being looked after across the country."
The Governor-General's budget has doubled to about $20-million in recent years, though this does not include millions more covered by other government departments.
© 2004 Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved.