Canadian delegates attending a United Nations climate change conference in Egypt last November stayed at a luxury resort that ranks low for being environmentally friendly, according to government documents obtained by The Epoch Times.
The resort boasts 13 bars, a private beach, eight swimming pools, “theme parties,” a spa, camel rides, three buffets, and a disco club.
Rooms ranged from $405 to US$1,127 per night at the resort, which was ranked three Green Stars by Egypt’s Minister of Tourism, just three months before the climate conference began, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.
In response to an Inquiry of Ministry made by MP Gérard Deltell, Environment and Climate Change Canada provided details of the over $1 million spent on hotels and accommodations in the resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, from Nov. 6 to Nov. 20, 2022.
Deltell asked for a breakdown of which hotels were used, what was spent at each hotel, how many rooms were rented at each hotel and for how many nights, the room rate paid at each hotel, and how many individual delegates received rooms for the $1,077,126.40 spent for accommodations.
The resort, Domina Coral Bay Hotel, cost Canadian taxpayers $782,039.15, plus an additional US$21,963.32, for 106 rooms, for a total of 113 government delegates. The more than $811,000 grand total represented the largest single expenditure of the climate change conference.
The Green Star program ranks hotels based on their use of solar energy, recycling practices, water conservation measures, and other environmentally friendly policies. Twenty-eight other hotels in the area received higher ratings, out of a five-star scale, for being “outstandingly environmental friendly and showing a high commitment to intensive and continuous protection of nature and the environment.”
In a 2016 survey, the Domina hotel had no green policies, according to responses to the Journal of Association of Arab Universities for Tourism and Hospitality.
Minister of Environment Steven Guilbeault was a member of the Canadian delegation attending the climate change conference. At the time, he said: “Climate and nature are two sides of the same coin. The call to protect nature must receive the same attention as does the climate.”
“We collectively need to act to fight climate change, something the Official Opposition does not seem to have understood,” he said. “It has no idea whatsoever what needs to be done to fight climate change and to adapt to the reality of climate change.”
