Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

A spokesperson for Justin Trudeau is defending the prime minister's use of taxpayer dollars to finance two nannies who are helping to look after the family's three children.

Kate Purchase, Trudeau's director of communications, says in a statement the family employs two household employees as secondary caregivers who also perform what she calls "other duties around the house."

The statement does not address the apparent contradiction with Trudeau's comments during the election campaign that "wealthy families ... like mine" don't need the help of taxpayers to finance child care.

Purchase has yet to specify what the other duties entail, but notes that a small number of staff provide assistance to the Trudeau family, and that similar arrangements existed for their predecessors.

The nannies, who are considered special assistants under the Official Residences Act, have been hired for $15 to $20 per hour during the day and $11 to $13 at night.

Trudeau and his wife Sophie have three young children — Xavier, Ella-Grace and Hadrien — who make the family eligible for $3,400 a year in child-care benefits, money Trudeau has promised to give to charity.

One of the caregivers accompanied Trudeau, his wife and two of the children on the prime minister's recent trip to Paris for the climate change summit.