Catherine Stewart, Canada’s former ‘climate change’ ambassador, billed taxpayers a quarter million dollars during her tenure.
Accounts show her 23-month appointment resulted in $254,089 in travel expenses, reported Blacklock’s Reporter.
Stewart charged for stays at luxury hotels ranging up to $623 a night, according to Access To Information records.
“I am thrilled to welcome Catherine Stewart,” Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said on appointing her Ambassador August 2, 2022. Stewart did “exemplary work” as assistant deputy environment minister, he said.
“Humans share a single atmosphere,” said Minister Guilbeault. “There is no planet B. That’s why the global challenge of climate change requires global solutions.”
The cost of the drivers and luxury transportation comes from an exclusive access to information request filed by Rebel News into the ministry for expenses related to November’s UN Climate Change Conference held in Scotland.
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Ambassador Stewart traveled to Abu Dhabi, Amsterdam, Bali, Beijing, Bern, Brasilia, Brussels, Cairo, Copenhagen, Delhi, Florence, Geneva and Helsinki as part of her mandate.
“In-person outreach was required to have candid conversations to help inform the development of a strategy to advance this initiative the Prime Minister has mandated Ambassador Stewart to lead,” according to the Department of Environment.
She also visited Istanbul, Kinshasa, Leipzig, Lisbon, London, Milan, Mumbai, Munich, New York City, Paris, Rome, Sao Paulo, Sharm El-Sheikh, Vienna, Washington and Zurich. Expenses included business class airfare.
In Paris, where Stewart informed French-nationals about Canada’s carbon tax, she spent $428 a night on accommodations, reported Blacklock’s Reporter. The Hotel Alison, near the Eiffel Tower, charged $22 for croissants and coffee.
Accounts of the January 2023 junket, which include a stop in London, shows Stewart billed $3,350 in London including a stay at the $412-a night Club Quarters Hotel at Trafalgar Square.
The annual United Nations climate summit, the 27th Conference of the Parties was held last November in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh. The running tally for flights of Canadian delegates to the event is already in excess of $622,000.
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She typically travelled by air even if travel by rail was available.
Stewart, a former climate negotiator, was “uniquely qualified to work closely with Canadian missions abroad to advance the Government of Canada’s environmental agenda on the world stage,” cabinet said at the time.
“Climate change will bring unprecedented challenges to our security as nations, communities and individuals,” Ambassador Stewart told a 2023 conference. “No nation in the world is immune from the consequences of climate change.”
Stewart’s appointment followed public consultations on the most fitting phrase to describe ‘climate change’.
“Preference was split between ‘climate change’ and ‘climate crisis,’” said the report Nature Based Solutions And Cleaner Environment Advertising Campaign Testing.
