Canada's Ambassador for Climate Change racks up massive travel bill to 'inform' world about carbon tax and other Trudeau government policies

Canada's Ambassador for Climate Change Catherine Stewart has spent $254,000 on travel, including stays at luxury hotels costing up to $623 a night, since the long-time Ottawa bureaucrat was appointed to her current position. And she eschews train travel, preferring to travel by air even if the latter transportation creates a larger carbon footprint.

She stayed at an exclusive hotel in Paris with a view of the Eiffel Tower for which she billed taxpayers $428 a night, according to Blacklock's Reporter. The purpose of that trip was to "inform" the French government about Canada's carbon tax – something a backgrounder from the Department of the Environment and Climate Change could have achieved.

The Paris hotel charged $22 for croissants and coffee: "Outreach was required to have candid conversations to help inform the development of a strategy," Stewart explained, according to Blacklock's. Stewart has not limited her informational trips to Europe.

During her Brazil tour in 2023, she went through $17,462.51 in only six days — with first class airfare costing $15,698.12, according to the Government Travel Expenses website. During her stay in South America, she was supposed to "engage in outreach with the new Lula Administration in Brazil given their focus on environment and climate change issues."

Stewart consistently chose air travel even if trains were available, according to Blacklock's. On one occasion, she flew from Ottawa to Toronto to attend a climate conference. Her stay at the Sheraton Centre Hotel was $323 and the total cost of the trip was $10,096.

But most of Stewart's assignments have taken her outside of Canada to countries that include the Netherlands, Indonesia, Denmark, Switzerland, Egypt, Finland, Italy, Brazil, Austria, United Arab Emirates and the United States. Stewart flew to London in 2023, as "in-person outreach, was required to have candid conversations" in order to "showcase Canada's leadership."

She found accommodation at London's Trafalgar Square at the Club Quarters Hotel for $412 a night, as she proceeded with "carbon pricing outreach." In a June 25, 2024 post on X, Stewart described her work in Oslo, Norway: " At the Ministerial Dialogues on Nature hosted by @kldep in Oslo I engaged with partners on urgent climate and nature action, driving ambition towards #COP29 and #COP16."