MPs need to go further to ensure expense scandals don’t happen again: taxpayer watchdog
Gregory Thomas of the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation was on Parliament Hill Thursday, with a solution to put an end to Ottawa's expense scandals.
Thomas — the Executive Director of the taxpayer watchdog — addressed the Commons Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs about improving the financial accountability of our members of parliament.
He offered a laundry list of recommendations:
- Extending the Access to Information Act to cover spending by MPs, Senators and parliamentary admission (currently MPs and Senators are exempt from having to release expense information via ATI requests)
- Extending the authority of the Auditor General to Parliament ( The AG cannot audit Parliament without an 'invitation' and without terms of reference decided upon by MPs)
- Putting all receipts and documentation relating to Parliament Online – receipts, leases, contracts, etc.,
- Allowing recall petitions against MPs and Senators, as in British Columbia,
- Depriving MPs and Senators convicted of a serious crime, where the sentence is federal time, of their pension eligibility.
Those seem like measures that most Canadians would likely embrace.
But will the politicians go for it?
Probably not.
"MPs and Senators don’t want to show us their receipts, because they don’t want the scrutiny," Thomas told Yahoo Canada News in an email exchange on Friday afternoon.
"Former MP Joe Fontana is charged by the RCMP with expensing his son’s wedding reception in 2005. The first anybody heard of it was when a document leaked out from a Golf and Country Club in London, Ontario. Commons administration never said a word, the Commons board of internal economy never told the public what was going on. Seven years went by.
"We need receipts and other documentation for the same reason auditors need to see receipts. We need to see how the money was spent – who spent it, who received, and what valuable goods or services were received in exchange for the money. If you don’t have the proper paper trail, there’s no way of telling whether or not the money was spent properly."
Liberal MPs and senators — to their credit — have started disclosing their expenses online but there's little detail. MP Hedy Fry's proactive disclosure, for example, says that expensed $2,621,60 for airfare between September 26 to October 3 for "other Parliamentary business."
That's it — no receipts and no real reason given for the travel. (Parliament was not in session)
Thomas lauds MPs Elizabeth May and Brent Rathgeber who do post their receipts online.
If you go to Rathgeber's website you'll see an itemized list of expenses: for staff salaries, for housing allowances, for hospitality and travel. And if you click on the dollar amounts, you'll see actual receipts.
"It would sure put an end to expense scandals," Thomas said.
"If Senator Duffy had posted his receipts when he was first appointed in 2009, his housing issues would have been brought to light immediately, addressed immediately, and he’s probably still be in the Senate."
MP Allowances (Courtesy of CBC News)
- MPs who live outside Ottawa get an annual housing allowance of $28,000
- Non-Ottawa MPs also receive a meal per diem of $90/day while Parliament is in session (no receipts required)
- MPs whose ridings are in the national capital region get a daily food allowance of $48/day
- MPs using their cars to get around their respective ridings are entitled to the mileage reimbursement of $0.52/kilometre — no proof of actual use required.
- Each MP gets 64 free round-trip flights a year regardless of cost (ie: First class or business class is okay). 25 of the flights can be used to go anywhere in Canada and four can be used to go to Washington DC or New York.
- Spouses and children are allowed to share in some of those flights — no questions asked.
- Each MP is allocated $10,000/year for "hospitality" expenses with little oversight.
Yahoo News Canada - Latest News & Headlines
Post there expenses online. Good idea. Now how do we make it happen?
Gregory Thomas of the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation was on Parliament Hill Thursday, with a solution to put an end to Ottawa's expense scandals.
Thomas — the Executive Director of the taxpayer watchdog — addressed the Commons Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs about improving the financial accountability of our members of parliament.
He offered a laundry list of recommendations:
- Extending the Access to Information Act to cover spending by MPs, Senators and parliamentary admission (currently MPs and Senators are exempt from having to release expense information via ATI requests)
- Extending the authority of the Auditor General to Parliament ( The AG cannot audit Parliament without an 'invitation' and without terms of reference decided upon by MPs)
- Putting all receipts and documentation relating to Parliament Online – receipts, leases, contracts, etc.,
- Allowing recall petitions against MPs and Senators, as in British Columbia,
- Depriving MPs and Senators convicted of a serious crime, where the sentence is federal time, of their pension eligibility.
Those seem like measures that most Canadians would likely embrace.
But will the politicians go for it?
Probably not.
"MPs and Senators don’t want to show us their receipts, because they don’t want the scrutiny," Thomas told Yahoo Canada News in an email exchange on Friday afternoon.
"Former MP Joe Fontana is charged by the RCMP with expensing his son’s wedding reception in 2005. The first anybody heard of it was when a document leaked out from a Golf and Country Club in London, Ontario. Commons administration never said a word, the Commons board of internal economy never told the public what was going on. Seven years went by.
"We need receipts and other documentation for the same reason auditors need to see receipts. We need to see how the money was spent – who spent it, who received, and what valuable goods or services were received in exchange for the money. If you don’t have the proper paper trail, there’s no way of telling whether or not the money was spent properly."
Liberal MPs and senators — to their credit — have started disclosing their expenses online but there's little detail. MP Hedy Fry's proactive disclosure, for example, says that expensed $2,621,60 for airfare between September 26 to October 3 for "other Parliamentary business."
That's it — no receipts and no real reason given for the travel. (Parliament was not in session)
Thomas lauds MPs Elizabeth May and Brent Rathgeber who do post their receipts online.
If you go to Rathgeber's website you'll see an itemized list of expenses: for staff salaries, for housing allowances, for hospitality and travel. And if you click on the dollar amounts, you'll see actual receipts.
"It would sure put an end to expense scandals," Thomas said.
"If Senator Duffy had posted his receipts when he was first appointed in 2009, his housing issues would have been brought to light immediately, addressed immediately, and he’s probably still be in the Senate."
MP Allowances (Courtesy of CBC News)
- MPs who live outside Ottawa get an annual housing allowance of $28,000
- Non-Ottawa MPs also receive a meal per diem of $90/day while Parliament is in session (no receipts required)
- MPs whose ridings are in the national capital region get a daily food allowance of $48/day
- MPs using their cars to get around their respective ridings are entitled to the mileage reimbursement of $0.52/kilometre — no proof of actual use required.
- Each MP gets 64 free round-trip flights a year regardless of cost (ie: First class or business class is okay). 25 of the flights can be used to go anywhere in Canada and four can be used to go to Washington DC or New York.
- Spouses and children are allowed to share in some of those flights — no questions asked.
- Each MP is allocated $10,000/year for "hospitality" expenses with little oversight.
Yahoo News Canada - Latest News & Headlines
Post there expenses online. Good idea. Now how do we make it happen?
