Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission President Pierre Tremblay, with a $343,000 yearly salary, billed taxpayers for limo rides, a French resort stay, and frequent Ottawa-Toronto flights instead of trains, per Access To Information records. Tremblay increased his travel and hospitality budget by 85% this year, despite cabinet commitments to cuts.

.@CNSC_CCSN pres, who lives in Whitby, in first year on job billed $3,515 in limo rides to Pearson Airport & $27,055 in airfare for 37 flights to Ottawa for meetings. 2024 junket to Vienna incl. $9,203 in business class airfare. Trip to France in 2025 cost total $14,017. Room… https://t.co/yKZ9UqSlAJ pic.twitter.com/j6lI2t6B0B

— Blacklock's Reporter (@mindingottawa) November 17, 2025

A September 2 memo, Increase Travel, Hospitality and Conference Threshold And Budget For President, cautioned that higher travel/hospitality limits increase risk due to the proactive disclosure of senior leaders' expenses. “The former Commission president’s international travel expenditures were subject to media inquiries,” it warned. 

In his first year as Commission president, Tremblay of Whitby, Ont., appointed in 2024, billed taxpayers $3,515 for limousines to Pearson Airport and $27,055 for 37 flights to Ottawa for routine meetings, according to Blacklock’s.

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In Ottawa, Tremblay charged taxpayers $503/night at the Delta, $438/night at the Sheraton, and $43 for breakfast at the Metcalfe. Records show he then increased his travel and hospitality budget from $100,000 to $185,000, adding a $50,000 "executive and housing allowance."

.@CNSC_CCSN pres, who lives in Whitby, in first year on job billed $3,515 in limo rides to Pearson Airport & $27,055 in airfare for 37 flights to Ottawa for meetings. 2024 junket to Vienna incl. $9,203 in business class airfare. Trip to France in 2025 cost total $14,017. Room… https://t.co/yKZ9UqSlAJ pic.twitter.com/j6lI2t6B0B

— Blacklock's Reporter (@mindingottawa) November 17, 2025

The internal budget included a $53,000 international travel increase, citing the Commission's "critical role." Tremblay typically flew business class and expensed costly hotels, including $476/night in D.C., $635/night in Helsinki, and $640/night in Paris.

A month into the job, a 2024 junket to Vienna cost $9,203 for business class airfare. A May 1st trip to France cost $14,017, including a stay at the Hotel Castellane, a resort outside Marseilles known for specialties like wild boar with gnocchi. Tremblay's specific room charges at the Hotel Castellane were notably censored.

“My 40 years in Canada’s nuclear sector have been very rewarding,” he said in a 2024 keynote speech two months into the job. “My new role with the CNSC is affording me the opportunity to play an important part in the nuclear sector by serving the public in protecting Canada’s environment and its people.”

After consistently missing deficit targets, Cabinet vowed to reduce frivolous spending. "We are refocusing our spending," said then-Treasury Board President Anita Anand in 2023.

Prime Minister Mark Carney reiterated his election pledge to halt these kinds of costs on September 10, stating, "These are tough times. We have to make tough choices."

The federal government's November 3 budget aims to reduce wasteful spending and boost public service accountability by cutting management and consulting services spending by 20% over three years, which has more than doubled to $19.5 billion since 2015-16.

Even as a Memorandum warned of the 'current fiscal context' and urged 'prudence and sound fiscal management,' Tremblay’s reckless and lavish spending drove budget expenses up by a staggering amount.