Governor General Mary Simon (Image credit: the Canadian Press).

By Mel Rothenburger

ARMCHAIR MAYOR

ROTHENBURGER: We should get rid of governors-general and their free-spending ways

Mar 14, 2024 | 5:55 AM

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.

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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.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.