Canada’s ‘climate change’ ambassador billed taxpayers $254,000 to attend climate junkets

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.”

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. 

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.

Alex Dhaliwal

Journalist and Writer

Alex Dhaliwal is a Political Science graduate from the University of Calgary. He has actively written on relevant Canadian issues with several prominent interviews under his belt.

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