Last year, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge went on a much-hyped tour of western Canada, only things didn’t go so well. I actually think the tour was well-organized in that there weren’t any major gaffes and the Cambridges’ staff wasn’t at war with the traveling royal press pack (which is what happened in India and Bhutan just months earlier). But the tour barely got any coverage worldwide. Apparently, the Canadian media didn’t do wall-to-wall coverage, the American media shrugged and the British media had other sh-t on their plates. What’s interesting about the tour is that it was also one of Will and Kate’s most expensive tours when all is said and done. Not only did Kate spend a fortune on all-new clothes, but Canadian taxpayers had to really shell out a lot of money just to host the Cambridges for a week. Back in November, early figures had the cost to Canadian taxpayers at £506,000/$855,600 CAD. Now even more figures are in and wow… it’s expensive to have Kate toss her hair in your city.
The Province of British Columbia says it cost $613,363.93 to host the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their children last fall during the Royal Tour of Canada.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, along with their children Prince George and Princess Charlotte, visited British Columbia and the Yukon from 24 September to 1 October. The Royal Tour consisted of seven communities: Bella Bella, Haida Gwaii, Kelowna, Vancouver and Victoria in British Columbia; and Carcross and Whitehorse in the Yukon.
The Federal Government of Canada picked up a portion of the tab as well, in a cost-sharing measure with the province, but it hasn’t released the financial details yet. The Federal Government has said its budget estimate was around $855,600, while the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said it spent $2,000,000 in policing costs over the eight-day tour.
Factored into the cost are accommodation, site reconnaissance for each location, and media transportation to all engagements. Per the CBC, the expenses included a dry run before the tour that involved royal, federal, provincial staff and a media site trip.
The Province of British Columbia also paid for flights to and from the United Kingdom for the Cambridges and all transportation costs while the family was in Canada.
The Yukon portion of the Royal Tour cost the Department of Tourism and Culture $11,754.76. Further expenses haven’t been released by the Territory.
If you want a more detailed breakdown of the finances, go here to CBC. It’s the policing costs that drive me up the wall. Like, do I think that Will and Kate should have police protection? Sure. But we know – from local reporting done in Canada during the tour – that the police were also on-call and mobilized during Will and Kate’s “private time” in Canada too. They spent time away from their press detail – with full protection detail – so they could have little vacations within the tour, which might help Canadian tourism but it also costs Canadian taxpayers a sh-tload.
TL;DR version: Will and Kate are too expensive for how little they do.
Photos courtesy of Pacific Coast News, WENN.
No one really cared about this tour.. people only talked about her clothes, that’s it.
And the areas they toured don’t need help with tourism In fact their presence was kinda a pain in the ass during tourist season.
The India trip was also not well received, right?
@Guest:
I honestly don’t know if it was poorly received (I guess that depends on who you ask?), but it sure received A LOT less coverage than any of their prior tours.
And the most memorable thing to come out of it, IMO, was Kate saying “How interesting!” after hearing about CHILDREN. BEING. MUTILATED. So I don’t think it was considered a success by any measure.
I’m curious to see how W&K’s team handles tours going forward, since these last two were such sh!tshows.
“And the most memorable thing to come out of it, IMO, was Kate saying “How interesting!” after hearing about CHILDREN. BEING. MUTILATED. So I don’t think it was considered a success by any measure.” – Almost every time she opens her mouth, she says something stupid.
Do you know how much that tour cost? I’ve checked and there is nothing on it.
I do have some sympathy for Kate here and there, but I swear, she says THE DUMBEST things. She uses ridiculous syntax and a gillion filler words and puts buzzwords in the wrong places, which is exactly how I talk when I’m nervous and totally unprepared and under-educated about a given topic. Which is why I prepare for events that require me to speak publicly/to important people/about important causes. I will never understand why these two just don’t take an hour or two per week to freaking prepare. It’s absurd.
Wouldn’t an instinctual reaction to hearing about kids being mutilated would be “oh how sad!” That doesn’t require preparation but human emotion.
@Nic919 exactly! Even with zero preparation, wouldn’t most people’s normal reaction be “How awful!” or something like that? There is something off with Kate.
Are these expenses beyond their control or do Kate and Wills make unusual demands — mirrored ceilings only and imported water from Scandinavia.
I wonder how much of the costs were incurred by the presence of the kids. Their police protection, I mean. However much it was, it wasn’t worth it. Balloon animals notwithstanding.
@Rachel, to be fair, London was on high alert at the time she was told to take 9 protection officers to that wedding.
Told to take them? And where did you get that information, from the head of her security detail? It wasn’t that London was on any alert. She was crossing an LGBT boycott line to get to the wedding, held at the Dorcester. Odds are, she didn’t want to be photographed going through the protestors and supporting the owner’s anti LGBT stance. From the Telegraph:
“The hotel group, which runs 10 properties around the world, including three in Britain, is currently the focus of a worldwide boycott by several prominent celebrities over its ties to the sultanate of Brunei, which recently imposed a series of harsh new Islamic laws that increase the punishment for homosexuality from a 10-year prison sentence to death by stoning. The Dorchester Collection is owned by the Brunei Investment Agency, an arm of Brunei’s finance ministry.”
The $ 855,00 cost to tax payers didn’t include security and police protection! That was an additional $2 million cost to the RCMP!
I would assume having both children there meant a massive step-up in security. Kate once took 10 protection officers with her to attend a wedding, alone, in London. Imagine the security risks of having the entire family, heir and spare included, on a highly publicised tour. Begs the question of why they brought the children in the first place.
10 protection officers? Talk about overreacting.
No, I don’t think even they, dislike them as I do, make unusual silly demands. This is just how much it costs to accommodate public dignitaries. Most of it, as others are saying, constitutes security costs.
Sixer on their previous Canada tour, they insisted in having a private vacation of one night in a remote cabin. The RCMP had to camp out, vigilant, all night long out in the wilderness because these two wanted a vacation in the middle of a work trip.
And lets not forget the visit to the Taj Mahal where it was alleged they asked for the scaffolding to be removed so they could get their own Diana shot.
Oh, SIGH.
I’d totally forgotten about the scaffolding-removal incident! Absurd 🙄
They order out while staying at the hotel in the Yukon, which could have prepared food for them. And they didn’t bother to have a picture taken with them, despite the hotel being renovated for their visit.
Firstly, having the first 3 heirs to the heir in attendance costs tonnes in security. That was/is unavoidable and is usually judged by the police.
However, WK have shown repeatedly they have no regard for cost cutting the security bill no matter what they are doing. They’ve never shown any regard for the mounting security costs of their activities at home or abroad eg repeatedly going to unsecured locations resulting in additional ad hoc security measures.
How much does it cost annually to protect William and Kate?
I wonder how much security they really need. When the Queen visited DC a decade ago or so, security was like nothing I had ever seen, even greater than in the aftermath of the 9/11 attack. Military jets patrolling the skies, armed navy ships cruising the river, an armoured motorcade that put the president’s to shame. Are they that much of a target for terrorism, or is it just an over abundance of caution by host countries?
It is a LOT of security for people who do basically nothing. I get that they might be terrorist/kidnapping targets, but I would just refuse to host them if I were head of a country. Why? They do nothing for us, and insult our people and reporters, leaving them outside the party, standing on the sidewalk.
Jerks.
@Megan, well she is The Queen!
@lak – Thank you! That’s what I thought. Images of the staff running around filling last minute demands filled my head.
Awful. Why does Catherine have the energy to do these expensive overlong state visits but not attend simple charity events in the UK?
There should be a set amount for security which should only be provided for official work. Anything approaching personal time should be paid for by the royals themselves. Absolutely no need to upgrade Bucklebury Manor for a woman who can’t bear to be away from mummy and a mummy who can’t bear not to be controlling her daughter and family.
1. What is going on with her hair in these photos?
2. The mystery of Will releasing those air ambulance pap shots is revealed.
The mop on her head is horrible, she needs a new haircut. Plus she should stop stealing Charlotte’s clips.
I thought the same about the pap shots.
I was in Germany and Austria during their Canadian trip and the only time they talked about this tour was when George refused to high five JT and when they were at this garden party.
I am in Canada. Not BC but Western Canada (one province over from BC). And even I don’t remember seeing ANY coverage for this tour on any media platform.
Just proves that people are really not interested in them.
Me too, Layla, there was very little coverage, and they didn’t do anything important, anyway. What a waste of money, time, and resources.
I’m near Kelowna, and their coverage while here, was 5 minutes on the noon news and slightly less for the evening news
Torontonian here and it barely registered. Some people didn’t even know they were in Canada. I read the CBC on the regular, and biggest story was about the high-five that wasn’t and mostly because the comments section were full of JT haters.
Crazy world. What is the purpose of the tour anyway?.
My guess is that (they were invited by the Canadian government, and the BRF usually visits commonwealth countries. Seems to me the tour they did in 2011 when they were first married went over well, but then they were still popular. All I saw were pictures of them when they first arrived, at at that children’s party just before they left.
Because the new PM wanted some more photos of himself on the front page, this time with some visiting royals? Whether he does good work or not, the man clearly loves the limelight.
You can say that again!
hIgh fives for this.. He is the PM of Selfies…
Royal tours to Canada have been happening since 1786.
QEII has visited 22 times between 1957 and 2010. It’s a pretty normal occurrence all things considered. I think there’s a lot more talk about it (in a negative way at least) when it comes to Will and Kait because they’re just so work shy, and they like to indulge more than her majesty.
I feel like Canadians have more residual respect for Liz, too. I’m mostly in Southern Ontario though, so maybe that’s just the feels there? I know the provinces rarely agree on things though lol
I can’t find the link at the moment, but re: the “purpose” of the tour, I remember wondering the same exact thing at the time. The comments on the Duchess Kate blog were totally OTT about how it was “soft diplomacy,” meant to show respect to First Nations, that there was “so much the public wasn’t privy to,” etc. etc.
But a lot of what those fans were saying was contrary to facts I read elsewhere. I think at the end of the day, the PM just wanted to have them visit and get himself a few photo ops.
If I can find the link I will post it, but it is quite nauseating in the lengths people will go to excuse these two!!
Ugh. Once again, I have so much resentment for these people who have no connection to Canada yet we have to pay for them to prance around in a highly sanitised tour wearing new clothes.
Also, cute kids but they are not interesting enough to really mean anything. Just more useless people we’ll have to pay for.
Right?
Who teh f cares about small cute children enough to pay to import fancy ones from England.
Go home you money pits, I have a day care right by my work if I need to see cute kids.
^^^This!
LMAO Best comment yet. :raises wine glass in salute:
@detritus @HeidiM I can find some cute kids within my friend circle (and they are cuter that George and Charlotte.)
And they don’t go everywhere attended by a lot of very expensive police officers who are paid for by someone other than their parents.
Shit, I mean if we have to cover the cost of her wardrobe I want a vote on the items and the ability to force her to listen to a stylist.
@detritus, you hold her down, I’ll cut off six inches of hair.
Ahaha. We can put her out with the maple syrup bills, that’s their secondary power right?
Lol I agree. I’m showing my solidarity to all the angry Canadians and anti-monarchists over this issue. Personally, I never once understood the fascination and media frenzy over the royals. Canada is a progressive country with strong values of democracy and equality, but I don’t know why they uphold this anachronistic, elitist institution. People need to stop perpetuating this man-made myth of royalty. For a family that parades themselves as being genetically superior or “blue-blooded”, they are by far one of the most unremarkable people lol. Smdh
They look so …. dry in that first pic. Everything about them is so crusty and dry and they’re my age. Good gawd.
OT:
Princess Margaret’s former husband Lord Snowdon has died at the age of 86.
Sorry to hear that. Was it sudden?
“Lord Snowdon, the former husband of Princess Margaret, has died at the age of 86.
The photographer, born Anthony Armstrong-Jones, died peacefully at his home today, the photographic agency he worked with has said.
Buckingham Palace said the Queen had been informed, but did not comment further.
Camera Press said in a short statement: ‘The Earl of Snowdon died peacefully at home on 13th January 2017.’ “
Nah. He’s been declining steadily for many years.
Canadians don’t overly care about the monarchy, but I am pissed they spent this much on Will and Kate. Can we petition this crap?
They can stay on the other side of the pond, that money could be used so many other ways. For example, it is desperately needed in the North of 60 territories for infrastructure and healthcare. Prime Minister Hot Hair and his lovely socially conscious wife have this shit covered, they are the only political royalty we need TYVM.
Also, Sophie does more work in a month that Kate does all year, come at me. Except no one will, because Kate and Will are the money sucking leeches of the Commonwealth.
^^^This! All day!
I am pissed that they visited First Nations locations and did not contribute anything directly to help them out. After all it is the British Crown that set up the reservation system and entered into treaties that were often in bad faith. Will’s direct ancestors are the reason why First Nations often face deplorable circumstances. (yes the Canadian government continued it from 1867 on, but it started somewhere)
They went there for dinner and a show.
This is the grossest part.
You are literally living off the spoils of our First Nations communities, who despite their historic treatment by the commonwealth, welcomed them with open arms and gifts of respect.
Will and Kate saw a reserve, got their ethnic souvenir and left. I have heard zero mention of their support for First Nations communities. How on earth can you visit such suffering, that your family directly caused, and then just say, so long thanks for the scarf, and leave it as is.
This. And their patronizing visit just seemed to be a further slap in the face; their utter insensitivity and contribution, with their clueless “touristing”, to the continuing economic violence of colonialism which is still ravaging First Nations communities.
We expect better from them, but when you look back and remember William’s participating in that “colonials and natives” party, it’s not surprising where he picked this crap behaviour up.
I was wondering if you would cover this when I read it on CBC last night! I was so irritated by how much BC spent, there are so many other things they could have spent that money on, like our health care system which has brutal wait times for some procedures right now. I saw them at one of the events they did here, and honestly I came away from it thinking they looked bored the whole time and clearly weren’t into it.
They always look bored and uninterested. That’s how these two are. William and Kate will be a terrible King and Queen Consort.
Still have a gut feeling they won’t be King and Queen consort ever.
I think they will… but the Dolittles will never be popular.
I think they won’t Sometimes you just know.
I agree with Kitty. At some point, we will reach the Gaffe of No Return – they will f-ck up so spectacularly that Parliament will have no choice but to demand he be removed from the succession.
I could deal with this pair, if they were exiled to St. Barts or Mustique.
Am not surprised about this, esp how they love vacationing, sorry official touring, on other people’s money. They do i enough in their own time so why should the Canadian tax payers be any different.
They had more staff on the Canadian tour than India/Bhutan I think and considering how little we saw the children – they were in one place while Mummy and Daddy caroused around with their ‘private time’ – they shouldn’t have brought them but then again it would have denied the DoLittles of the ‘Normal Family’ PR rubbish.
Justin Trudeau should never have issued that invitation – the Cambridges practically bit his hand off over the free holiday.
It cost the Canadian taxpayer close to $1mill CAD to ‘host’ these 2 and their ‘little’ family and she didn’t even flash them.
I agree, he never should have invited them.
Hot Hair’s flaws are his vanity and his need to be fresh or young or whatever the hell hes trying here.
All we need is a quick visit after Charles’s coronation. Although after 4 years of Trump who knows what our economy will look like. We might be borrowing from England.
I used to work in Tourism marketing here in Canada. This visit wasn’t going to help anything. I spent hours and hours doing research and reading 3rd party research and the fact that someone ‘famous’ has been to a site fades within months. As a Canadian, it just pisses me off that PM Selfie had them visit and we have to pay for it. The money could have been spent on helping lower the food costs in the far north, infrastructure, homelessness, etc. etc.
I think many Canadians love the Queen, but Charles and Willnot/Kannot not so much. It’s just a back of mind thing that we are still a part of the empire. I suspect we won’t be forever.
Well I hope for you Canadians that you’ll leave the Commonwealth before Wills is king.
We’ll probably stay in the Commonwealth even if we gave up Charles or Wills as our head of state. Other former colonies have done.
@LAB I came on to make a similar comment! No price is too high so that Justin can take a SELFIE!! He has mastered the art of distraction, deflection and misdirection.
I see a different side of this. A lot of people around me (I’m in NS) were absolutely raving about W/K. Women at my work were like in a tizzy over the wedding, then the baby, then the second baby, and the tours and everything. I never understood it myself, because if I wanted to see any of them, it’d be the queen.
But I think there are a lot more Canadians than you think that eat this right up.
I point those women to various sites that outline just how little Kate has done in six years…. then they start to like them a little less. When your hard earned tax money goes to a waste of space, it’s not quite as adorable anymore.
And they were popular back in 2011… but so much of that goodwill has been wasted.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think the east coast of Canada has more ties to the UK and Ireland than the west coast. I have relatives in Newfoundland and they are very pro-monarchy.
As a Canadian tax payer, this is horrifying. I pay extremely high taxes, to pay for “free health care” , and lazy people on welfare. This is ridiculous
Yeah, who needs them when we have lovely Meghan right here in Toronto. And I can go to the park where she walks her dogs all for the price of a subway token.
No kidding. I work in health care and, as a manager, I’m getting raked over the coals for “excessive spending” for essential patient care items. Then you read about the Cdn government wasting our hard-earned money to host those two lazy entitled duds and their spawn to the tune of millions makes my blood boil. What an absolutely ridiculous waste!
My dad was sent to Roswell, in Buffalo, because Princess Margaret didn’t have enough rooms. The care there was so much better they now travel back for yearly check ins. And it’s because we are short changing our healthcare so badly.
It’s like the Drummond report came out and everyone just plugged their ears.
As a Canadian taxpayer, I am only too happy to pay for universal health care and provide a social safety net for those less fortunate. Ironically, we taxpayers propped up the obscenely fortunate yet ultimate welfare bums – the Cambs.
Well put.
Exactly. I’m happy to pay taxes (I actually pay some) to ensure that everyone has access to health care, education and a safety net for when times are tough. I know welfare varies from province to province, but in Quebec, a single person on welfare earns 640$/month. Managing to survive on so little must require a lot of energy, people on welfare can’t afford to be lazy. The only lazy people here are Will and Kate.
Most people on welfare in Canada are on it for less than 6 months and need to support themselves and, often, their children. The only lazy thing here is that stereotype.
Missy, feel free to ride your high horse to the US where, shortly, taxes will be slashed, the safety net will be eliminated and affordable health care will be repealed. Good riddance.
Perfect. You took the words right out of my mind.
Excellent summation.
Ah it’s just part of the cost of high profile visitors. I’d rather pay for them to visit Canada than, say, a Mariah Carey type of visitor.
If Mariah Carey or another celebrity came the would bring and pay for their own security. This royal visit was an invitation from our own Canadian dolittle, selfie loving, eager to hang out with celebrities prime minister. Tired of paying for these royal visits when so much more important things could have been done with this money.
Hey but at least celebs like Mariah are allowed to accept freebies. Kate can’t HAHA!
I still feel actual anger about her pairing navy suede heels with that coat dress.
I couldn’t agree more
Really? It’s great!
The tour didn’t do anything at all.
Kitty, you are 100% correct. But hey, W&K got a free photo to use for their “Christmas thank you” cards, so I guess it wasn’t a *total* waste of everyone’s time and money! 🙄
I think they lost the goodwill they had 5 years ago and aren’t as popular as they once were. They lost their spark.
Hmmm the protection is fair. But it doesn’t make sense for Canada to invite them in the first place. They and the other royals add little value. It’s better to spend the money on trade deals.
?
Hi Joannie, I happen to think famous people are more prone to attacks so nothing wrong with having protection when they travel. However, if the protection is paid for by taxpayers, the travel needs to be justified and preferably have tangible returns, especially if it’s incurring expenses the longer the tour is. In this case, I don’t find there to be enough justification (aside from soft diplomacy) for Canada or UK taxpayers. Is it good to have the tour? Yes. Is it necessary? No, and I think especially no for the UK since I thought it is currently on an austerity drive? The money spent could go to, as one example, having actual professionals and politicians negotiating and finalising trade deals for both countries. Maybe that was a bad example. Do correct me on the incorrect or flawed part of my comments…
Jade, thanks for the response. I’m going to agree with you. I dont think the trip was necessary either. But they were invited. Blame the government. One of the reasons being, Trudeau is trying to heal the relationship between the FN and the govt plus Christy Clark wants more tourism on the BC coast unfortunately. And we are part of the commonwealth! How much are we going to pay for Trump’s visit? And his security? Trudeau invited him too.
William and Kate were the ones who specifically asked that the charities they visited were in dire need and needed the exposure. I cant find fault with that considering those charities benefited greatly since. I also think it was nice they had the play date with the soldiers wives and children. You also have to include spinoffs like tourism then and down the road plus the restaurants and hotels weren’t complaining.
Maybe I’m becoming very cynical but politicians and diplomats are becoming pigs at the trough. Some of the trade deals are ridiculous. For example our lumber. We cut the trees from our forests then ship to a mill in china or the US and we buy back the finished product. Same with our oil and steel. Our country is being sold off. I apologize for the long reply.
Ah no worries Joannie, you do have valid points. While this tour has cons, it also has some pros. And it is true, Canada invited them.
“Canada” didn’t invite them. The PM of Selfies (as brilliantly named above) did so for his own PR.
Oops yes, NOTA when I wrote Canada I actually meant him. My bad.
I shake my head at articles that report only half of the equation. Click bait!
The tour had very little coverage, even for us here in Canada. I hope the message that they are uninteresting people gets spread and they never come back again. Let’s use that tax money in things that are required or for people in need. I find insulting that so much money was spent in the Dolittles
True.
There wasn’t much to report except Waity’s clothes. The Cambridges comments were likely “edited out” by pressure from Buckingham Palace because they made the Cambridges look stupid.
Waity: “Can you tell the taste of the tea by smelling it?”
Euros 2 mio would keep 266 pupils in a secondary school for 1 year. (Euros 7.500 per pupil).
I live in Vancouver and the tour was very well covered and there was a lot of excitement about them being here. I thought it was great. Super expensive, but they say it really amped up tourism, especially from Britain, and the gain would far exceed the cost. I like the royals and we have a lot of royal lovers here – it did a lot for people to see them. Britain is a powerful ally to have.
Britain: aircraft carriers without aircraft.
Schools: unaccountable school chains.
Politics: colonial politics in Western Asian and in African countries. “Nuke-them” is the current Prime Minister aka Theresa May.
As for tourism: nope. The Royals don’t increase tourism anywhere.
Or do you have any numbers?
I know people here dislike Will and Kate and I understand why. I can’t imagine paying taxes to support them and feeling like I was getting anything out of it. With that said, I think there’s a bit of an echo chamber effect, because as much as its speculated that they’ll never take the throne, etc, the monarchy itself, and they and the Queen in particular, are still incredibly popular with high approval ratings in the UK from every recent poll I’ve seen.
If you estimate the costs of a school year at 7.500 Euros / a year / per pupil then the Cambridges wasted the costs for a school year for 266,666 pupils. In my hometown that is about 25% of a average secondary school’s the pupil number (approx. 1.000 pupils per secondary school).
7.500 Euros a year is actually a generous estimate, costs in Germany are about Euros 6.500 per pupil per year for secondary schools. (Secondary schools = school after primary school).
Honestly, what a waste.