Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Davos trip cost taxpayers about $18,000 less than when former Prime Minister Stephen Harper took the same trip in 2012, once the costs are adjusted for inflation.

Trudeau has been in some hot water since The Globe and Mail reported that his trip to attend the World Economic Forum in Switzerland cost taxpayers a whopping $678,000. That cost is mostly made up of expenses relating to accommodations, work space and travel for the prime minister and his delegation.

Harper’s 2012 Davos delegation cost Canadians $566,780.81, according to the Public Accounts. That translates to just under $620,000 today.

But a spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada said that an error was made in the information provided by Global Affairs Canada to the Receiver General in 2012. The figure provided on Public Accounts website, the source said, is off by $69,804.62.

That means Harper’s Davos trip cost $636,585.43 total. According to the Bank of Canada’s inflation calculator, that amount is equivalent to $695,937.04 in 2018.

That means Harper’s 2012 trip — in today’s dollars — cost taxpayers just under $18,000 more than Trudeau’s 2018 visit to the elite event.

Some of Harper’s expenses during his 2012 trip to the elite conference didn’t go unnoticed. Harper brought about 40 staff members and a fleet of 20 vehicles to Davos. He came under fire when it was revealed that the former Prime Minister shelled out over $23,000 of taxpayer funds to shuttle three of his ministers around the small Swiss village.

Andrew MacDougall, who worked in Harper’s PMO at the time, told iPolitics in an e-mail that it’s “hard to make comparisons across time” and that the $18,000 difference “isn’t exactly … astronomical.”

The news of the hefty price tag attached to Trudeau’s travels has also raised ire online. Conservative MP Michelle Rempel, who served in Harper’s cabinet and also went to Davos for the 2018 World Economic Forum, sent out a snarky tweet noting that she ate “sandwiches” to cut costs.

Fwiw I went to this, and it cost Canadian taxpayers $0. Davos life hacks: make sandwiches. https://t.co/mYipfdz7sp — Michelle Rempel (@MichelleRempel) April 3, 2018

Rempel attended the event after being selected as a part of the Young Global Leaders class of 2016. She explained on Twitter that she stayed in an Airbnb, rented a car and drove around as two and a half meters of snow dumped down. Rempel said she “didn’t expense anything because it was also personal learning time.”

This isn’t the first time Trudeau has attended the event. He blew both his and Harper’s trips out of the water with the cost of the 2016 Davos trip. Taxpayers shelled out $850,000 for that trip, which is equivalent to a little over $886,000 today.

Harper also attended the event twice. The former prime minister’s 2010 Davos trip cost $606,959, which is equivalent to just under $700,000 today.

According to the Prime Minister’s Office, the $678,000 price tag is the cost of doing business.

PMO Press Secretary Eleanore Catenaro said that the trip put into motion events that led to delivery giant UPS making a $500 million investment in Canada. She also said Trudeau’s shoulder rubbing resulted in $400 million in 5G technology investment in Canada as well as a commitment of $2 billion in investment over five years from cloud computing company Salesforce.

Harper’s trip also resulted in some notable milestones. During the 2012 Davos visit, Harper surprised Canadians with an announcement to overhaul the pension system. He also announced plans to pursue free trade deals with India and Europe.

There’s no telling what sorts of changes the next high-level trip to Davos will bring home for Canadians, but one thing seems likely: it will probably cost Canadians around $700,000.