The president of Canada’s nuclear watchdog charged taxpayers for limo rides, pricey hotel stays and dozens of flights between Ottawa and Toronto — then quietly boosted his own travel budget by 85% despite repeated government promises to curb wasteful spending.Access To Information records show Pierre Tremblay, the $343,000-a-year head of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, routinely chose planes over trains, billed thousands for business-class international travel and stayed at upscale hotels in Canada and abroad. Blacklock's Reporter says Tremblay, appointed in 2024 and living in Whitby, Ont., expensed $3,515 in limousine rides to Toronto’s Pearson airport and $27,055 for 37 flights between Ottawa and Toronto for routine meetings.While in Ottawa, Tremblay charged taxpayers $503 per night at the Delta Hotel, $438 at the Sheraton and treated himself to $43 breakfasts at the Metcalfe Hotel. He later raised his travel and hospitality budget from $100,000 to $185,000, plus an extra $50,000 in an “executive and housing allowance for the President,” according to internal documents..A September 2 memo titled Increase Travel, Hospitality And Conference Threshold And Budget For President warned the higher limits carried risks since senior officials’ travel reports must be publicly disclosed. The memo noted the previous president’s international travel had already drawn media scrutiny.The revised budget included $53,000 earmarked specifically for international trips. “The President acknowledges the Commission’s critical role on the international stage,” the memo stated. Receipts show Tremblay favoured business class on foreign flights and stayed at high-end hotels including $476 nights at the Marriott in Washington, D.C., $635 at the Hotel Lilla Roberts in Helsinki and $640 at the Hotel Au Manoir Saint Germain in Paris..Just a month into the job, Tremblay took a 2024 junket to Vienna that cost taxpayers $9,203 in business-class airfare alone. His May 1 trip to France last year racked up $14,017, including a stay at the Hotel Castellane, a resort outside Marseilles built in a former hunting lodge with a gourmet restaurant serving dishes like wild boar with gnocchi. His detailed room charges were blacked out.All of this comes as the federal government continues to promise restraint after repeatedly missing deficit targets. “We are refocusing our spending,” then-Treasury Board president Anita Anand said in 2023. Prime Minister Mark Carney repeated the same line on September 10, insisting Ottawa must clamp down on frivolous spending.Yet the Nuclear Safety Commission defended its decision to increase Tremblay’s expense budget even as other departments face cutbacks. “The Commission understands the current fiscal context where departments have been asked to reduce their spending,” an internal memorandum said. “As such the Commission must always continue to exercise prudence and sound fiscal management.”
