In the middle of the Cambridges’ royal tour of Canada at the end of September, the Daily Beast’s Tom Sykes wrote a fascinating and somewhat funny story about how badly the tour was going. Sykes didn’t say it was going badly because of gaffes or politics, but because Will and Kate were barely getting any coverage in Canada, in the UK or in the important American markets. Sykes said that interest in the Cambridges has been “going downhill” since the height of royal mania when Prince George was born, and that the general apathy towards the Cambridges specifically these days is mostly their own fault because of their open hatred of the press, their work-shy ways and they’re lives of “almost obsessive reclusiveness at Anmer Hall in Norfolk.” It was a brilliant takedown and assessment by Sykes, and it speaks to what a lot of us have felt about the William and Kate this year in particular, that there’s been a significant shift in how they’re covered and how people have lost interest in them. Well, what is the cost of disinterest and apathy? Quite a lot.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge balled out on Canada’s dime when they visited their former British colony in late September, spending an estimated grand total of £506,000 [$855,600 CAD] on their week-long trip to BC and the Yukon, according to numbers obtained by VICE News through an access to information request. Will and Kate’s last visit to Canada in 2011, just after they got married, cost a total of $1.2 million—about $113,000 per day. A year before that, the Queen embarked on a nine-day tour of the country that totalled $2.79 million—or around $310,000 per day.

During their lavish week on the west coast, Will and Kate spent about $13,000 on hospitality, which included flowers and refreshments, according to numbers provided by Heritage Canada. The budget includes a $500 gift from Justin Trudeau to the Royal family. The list doesn’t say what the gift was. About $2,000 was also spent on a “legacy gift,” though the budget doesn’t specify what it was, or who it was for. Another $100 was dropped on a bouquet at the end of the trip. Trudeau announced on the last day of the tour that the government would give $100,000 as an official gift to mark their tour, to be divided evenly between Prince’s Charities Canada and the Immigrant Services Society of British Columbia.

The royals also spent an estimated $20,000 on media room rentals and travel for the trip. And they shelled out $20,000 on their official photographer, and another $5,000 on a photo album and group photos. While they paid $10,000 to translate the media guide into both official languages, and $30,000 for translation of “program dailies, web etc…” Accommodations for their 16 staff cost $40,000, and accommodations for Department of National Defence drivers cost $10,000. The per diem for the royal household was $16,000.

The couple also rented two float planes in Victoria for $50,000, and a boat in Haida Gwaii for $5,000. And the budget also appears to include a $20,000 royal visit to the Young Vancouver Reception at the Telus Garden building. In the lead-up to the trip, staff for the royals made three preliminary visits to suss out the west coast, spending $39,000, $116,300, and $5,150 on each trip. The royal budget allocated a mere $40 on royal cellphones for the trip.

The Department of National Defence covered their international flights to and from London, although the cost of the flights isn’t listed. The visit to Haida Gwaii on September 30 was covered by British Columbia “and/or organization involved.” It’s not clear whether Haida Gwaii incurred any costs from the trip. The total cost sharing for the provinces was $30,000 — $15,000 each for BC and the Yukon.

According to a government Q&A, the tour is paid for by “cost sharing agreements” between the Government of Canada and the governments of British Columbia and Yukon. But it’s not clear from the ATIP what those arrangements were. The spreadsheet of the royal tour indicates that cost sharing expenses with the province are indicated in green, but the spreadsheet was sent by Heritage Canada in black and white.

[From Vice]

I love these kinds of breakdowns because I’m anal retentive and I love to see what kind of money is being spent and where. So the Canadian government had to pick up the tab for everything from flower bouquets to per diems to the Cambridges’ private photographer, lest some peasant photojournalist take photos of the Cambridges? Yikes. To be fair though, Justin Trudeau made a big deal about inviting the whole Cambridge family to Canada, probably because he hoped that the addition of Charlotte and George would be good for commonwealth relations. He was willing to spend £506,000 of taxpayer money just so Canadians could see Kate and Will waving sullenly interspersed with their “private time” on their Canadian holiday.

Photos courtesy of WENN.