EDITORIAL – We should get rid of our free-spending governors-general
Mary Simon, Canada’s 30th governor-general.
An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.
GOVERNOR-GENERAL Mary Simon has been awarded a salary boost of $11,200 for 2024, bringing her annual paycheque to $362,800. She doesn’t need it and, sorry, she doesn’t deserve it.
Simon came into office with high hopes as a governor-general who could bring people together, partly because she has indigenous roots.
While she’s been unremarkable, she hasn’t been an unfit gov-gen, not like Julie Payette was, for example. But is having a governor-general worth it?
They love spending money. Payette received a salary of $290,000 plus benefits, free laundry and enjoyed two official residences, a chauffeur-driven limo and spent $9.3 million on travel during her four years in the job.
She was rewarded with a $143,000 annual pension plus a generous expense allowance when she was shown the door.
An earlier gov-gen, Adrienne Clarkson, was also well-known for free spending, which included a total of $8.9 million for travel.
Simon is on track to eclipse the spending of any of them. In 2022, her first full year in office, she spent $2.7 million on travel, including $1.1. million for a single trip to the middle east that included almost $100,000 for in-flight catering. During a visit to Iceland she spent $71,000 on limos. Combined, she and Payette spent $88,000 of taxpayers’ money on clothing up to the end of 2022.
The bills for 2023 haven’t come in yet.
Other than ceremonial roles, the governor-general does little other than giving royal assent to legislation and occasionally the important job of deciding who can form a minority government. I’m sure those things could be handled a different way.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation wants the government to end international travel for governors-general except for meeting with monarchy, reform their pension, scrap the clothing allowance and end expense accounts when they leave office.
That would certainly be a good start but a better move would be to terminate the position altogether.
I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.
Mel Rothenburger is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Crazy earnings level for sure. Unless a public servant is working in enclosed spaces with fire risk, live electricity, chemical exposure risk, etc,, I don’t see how this is accepted by us.
With that; I can’t help but be reminded of our own city manager’s salary which is well over the $300k mark. Huh. For the rest of us, I see SaveOn has cans of chicken soup on for $2.49 right now!
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It is just continuation of the “Great Chain of Being” , just like the House of Lord and the Senate. Look who is in the Senate and the House of Lords? Appointments are poetical patronage in most cases without merit.
Canada needs to become a republic. A republic would allow Canda to assert its unique national identity while honouring our French, English and Indigenous roots. We would be able to choose our own head of state, who would represent the existing values and culture more accurately. This would symbolize a final break from the colonial past and signify a stronger, independent Canada,
Canada is a diverse and multicultural country, and becoming a republic would better reflect the diversity and values of its people. The current monarchy, may not be as relevant to the modern Canadian population, which includes people from various cultural backgrounds, in fact it may be divisive.
The republican model would support democratic principles by allowing the Canadian people to elect their head of state directly or indirectly, enhancing the democratic process and ensuring that the head of state is accountable to the people they represent. Reforming the government would eliminate what we have now a dictatorship of the minority. A republic if the government is properly structured would function through consensus where all parties participate rather than what we have now where the opposition Bill proposals never see the light of day.
If we became a republic that would necessitate a review of the Canadian constitution, allowing for the opportunity to modernize it and address any outdated or unclear provisions, ultimately creating a more transparent and accessible legal framework and a revision, for example, of our Education system, taxation, Resource management, and Judiciary for uniformity.
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I find it interesting that so few have replied to this editorial. Could it be that they don’t want to seem racist because our present Gov-Gen is Indigenous?
It is a non-job and a waste of money. Her expense account is ridiculous especially since hard working Canadians make far less and have to make do while she has free rein to spend any amount she wants without accountability.
As a tax payer I am fed up with our elected or appointed officials using our hard earned money frivolously.
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Agreed!
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