Patty Hajdu is defending her actions during the pandemic.
A recent news article was critical of the health minister’s decision to fly home to Thunder Bay while she was telling others to halt their travel.
“First of all, I work in Ottawa, so I have to fly to get to work. I would consider myself an essential worker in the middle of a pandemic, and so the advice I gave to Canadians was for non-essential travel,” Hajdu says.
It suggests Hajdu took twice as many flights on Transport Canada’s aircraft than the Transport Minister.
The article is also critical of her use of a government plane. Hajdu responds there were very little flying options to northern Ontario in the early days of the pandemic.
The federal health minister says she was not the only politician to fly on the government plane, adding that was during a time when commercial flights were scarce.
