Gov. Gen. Mary Simon has spent over $117,000 on dry cleaning since 2018, according to records obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF).
“When I spill half the Pizza Hut lunch buffet on my white work shirt, I don’t stick the company I work for with the dry-cleaning bill, and neither should the governor general,” said CTF Federal Director Franco Terrazzano in a release. “This is another perk the governor general enjoys that struggling Canadians can’t afford.”
According to the organization, the Office of the Secretary to the Governor General (OSGG) spent $117,566 on professional dry-cleaning services since 2018, despite having in-house staff on the payroll to do laundry. The cleaning tab averaged over $1,800 a month.
Mr. Terrazzano questioned why the governor general’s office spent so much on dry-cleaning in addition to in-house laundry expenses. “Whether it’s feasting on fancy airplane food, spending a fortune on a limo service in Iceland, or staying in the finest of hotels, Rideau Hall spares no expense when it’s taxpayers picking up the tab,” he said.
The governor general’s annual salary is $351,600 after receiving a $48,800 pay raise since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. From 2021 to 2022, the OSGG received around $33 million in funding.
In June 2022, the CTF criticized Ms. Simon after her guests spent nearly $100,000 on catering during flights to and from the Middle East earlier in the year.
Ms. Simon and her 29 passengers spent $93,117.89 on in-flight catering during her March 16 to 24 trip to Expo 2020, which amounted to more than $3,100 per person. The bill included $230 in flower arrangements, $984 for Flow brand boxed water, $165 in lemon and lime slices, and $128 for an unknown number of cases of Perrier water.
The CTF called for the federal government to release a detailed list of the trips’ expenses. “If they spent more than $3,000 each on in-flight catering, then taxpayers need to see how much they spent on hotels and food while on the ground in Dubai,” Mr. Terrazzano said.
“Why are the governor general’s expenses not posted proactively when the prime minister and ministers’ are proactively disclosed? Taxpayers deserve real transparency from Rideau Hall.”
