“I’ll look into it, ensure that… there’s adequate transparency around the expenses,” he said at a news conference announcing former Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour as the next governor general, according to the CBC report.
Carney also defended the role of former viceregals, saying “the governor generals have served our country with distinction” and that ex-office-holders “continue to serve Canadians through their charitable and other foundation activities, for which I’m personally grateful, and I think all Canadians are as well.”
The program has been under scrutiny before. In 2019, then-prime minister Justin Trudeau ordered an independent review after transparency concerns and questions about the program’s value, noted CBC. Former senior bureaucrat Alain Séguin was appointed to lead the exercise.
Recommendations
Séguin’s report warned that the program “has not been updated to reflect current public sector practices and public expectations concerning reporting and accountability,” according to the CBC report. He also concluded that the federal government’s public reporting policy was “ill-suited for providing details and clarity” on the allowance.
The review recommended that the Governor General’s office publish on its website which former governors general submit claims and what they are for, similar to the way members of Parliament’s travel expenses are posted online. It also suggested considering whether the support should end after a fixed number of years rather than remaining open-ended.