Prime Minister Trudeau, family on holiday in Costa Rica

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is heading to Costa Rica for a two-week vacation with his family.

The Prime Minister’s Office says the family is returning to the same place where they stayed over the Christmas holiday in 2019 and that they are paying for their own accommodations.

The prime minister must fly on a Royal Canadian Air Force plane for security reasons — even for personal travel — and the family’s flights on the last trip to and from Costa Rica cost the government about $57,000, without thousands more spent on flight crews’ stay in San Jose.

The PMO also says it consulted with the office of the federal ethics commissioner about the coming holiday. 

In 2017, Trudeau was found to have violated conflict of interest rules related to a 2016 vacation he took to Aga Khan’s private island in the Bahamas.

The PMO says Trudeau will get regular briefings while he is away.