OTTAWA—The royal couple is visiting Canada to watch some fireworks again this summer.

This time, though, it is not the newlyweds visiting, but the father of the groom.

Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, will tour New Brunswick, Ontario and Saskatchewan from May 20-23 as part of the diamond jubilee celebrations for Queen Elizabeth II.

“I am especially pleased that the royal couple has agreed to join us as we celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, this 60th year of her majesty’s reign as queen of Canada,” Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore said during a telephone news conference on Monday as he unveiled the itinerary.

“Opportunities such as this are indeed very rare. The only time Canada celebrated a diamond jubilee of a reigning king or queen was for Queen Victoria in 1897.”

PHOTOS:The Prince and the Duchess in Canada

New Democrat MP Pat Martin (Winnipeg Centre) was less than pleased with the announcement, especially since it came on the same day that public service unions revealed more upcoming job cuts for federal employees.

“I’m more interested in Canadian families than the royal family and a lot of Canadian families got a pink slip today along with a bread-and-circuses announcement of yet another royal visit,” Martin said in an interview Monday.

Moore said that while final costs are still being tallied, this will be the least expensive of the four royal tours Canada has hosted since 2009, coming in at less than $1 million before security costs.

“These are always done within existing budgets of the Department of Canadian Heritage and they’re always done as fiscally responsibly as possible,” Moore said Monday.

Moore said the bill for the 2009 visit was nearly $1.8 million and it cost taxpayers about $2.8 million to host Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, over Canada Day in 2010.

Moore said popular tour of newlyweds Prince William and Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, last year cost $1.2 million.

This will be Prince Charles’ 16th visit to Canada and the second for the Duchess of Cornwall, who first toured the country with him in 2009.

The royal couple will arrive in Fredericton on May 20, but the tour will officially begin the next day with a stop at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in Oromocto, N.B., where the Prince of Wales and Camilla will meet young veterans before heading to Saint John to join the crowds celebrating Victoria Day.

The couple will head to Toronto that night, where they will be greeted by emergency services workers and their families before taking in the Victoria Day fireworks display over Lake Ontario.

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They will arrive at Queen’s Park on May 22 for a visit that will include meeting the national leadership of the Assembly of First Nations, touring the site of the Athletes’ Village in the West Don Lands for the 2015 Pan/Parapan American Games, presenting diamond jubilee medals to “deserving Canadians” and meeting chief executives and young people who have participated in the Prince’s Charities “Seeing is Believing” program.

The Duchess of Cornwall will pay her first visit to the Queen’s Own Rifles. She has just become the colonel-in-chief of that regiment.

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