What a waste of tax payers dollars, an all expense paid vacation to Dubai to discuss how to order room service? To support the troops from their luxury suites? Good thing Canada has the Senate, I'm waiting for the indepth report on Mini-Bars-- I'm sure it will be fascinating.
A senatorial junket
National Post
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Senator Colin Kenny and the Senate Standing Committee on National Security and Defence have done much in recent years to highlight the security threats confronting Canada in the war against terrorism. With reports on airport security and the underfunding of the Canadian Forces, among other important topics, Mr. Kenny and the committee have provided Canadians with value for money, pushing forward efforts to strengthen domestic security and rebuild our military's capabilities.
More recently, Senator Kenny and three of his committee colleagues have given new life to another important cause, albeit haphazardly. They stand out as examples of why the federal government needs to improve the account senators give of travel expenditures borne by taxpayers.
In September, Mr. Kenny, three other committee members and three support staff found themselves holed up in a posh hotel in Dubai. The purpose of their excursion remains questionable.
On the one hand the trip is being billed as a fact-finding mission that was supposed to take the group to Kandahar, the southern, war-torn province of Afghanistan where Canadians are leading the battle against Taliban insurgents. On the other hand, Senator Michael Meighen, who was on the trip, has told the media that it was merely a bid to show support for our troops.
Either way, the odds of finding facts or demonstrating support were poor. The Canadian Forces warned the group of senators beforehand that there wasn't much chance of them reaching Kandahar for security reasons. That should have been enough to stop the trip. The Canadian Forces are strained to the limit already without having to escort a small group of senators and their staff on a tour.
Instead, the senators made the trip anyway, and whiled away a week in Dubai waiting unsuccessfully for entry to Afghanistan. And so taxpayers are now looking at a $30,000 hotel bill. How much taxpayers' money the senators spent on airfare and sundries is unknown because detailed spending reports are not given to the public. (It may total as much as $150,000.) Senators only offer taxpayers an account of total travel expenses during a given fiscal year.
John Williamson, federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, believes the trip was "a junket dressed up as parliamentary business, pure and simple." He may well be right.
We have argued in this column for Senate reform that will make the upper chamber more democratically accountable. Going hand in hand with democratic reforms, however, is the need for more transparency. Senators should be obliged to detail all their travel expenses. If this were currently the case, we doubt that Senator Kenny and his committee members would have been so ready to disregard the advice of the Canadian Forces and spend a week in one of the world's most expensive cities.
A senatorial junket
National Post
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Senator Colin Kenny and the Senate Standing Committee on National Security and Defence have done much in recent years to highlight the security threats confronting Canada in the war against terrorism. With reports on airport security and the underfunding of the Canadian Forces, among other important topics, Mr. Kenny and the committee have provided Canadians with value for money, pushing forward efforts to strengthen domestic security and rebuild our military's capabilities.
More recently, Senator Kenny and three of his committee colleagues have given new life to another important cause, albeit haphazardly. They stand out as examples of why the federal government needs to improve the account senators give of travel expenditures borne by taxpayers.
In September, Mr. Kenny, three other committee members and three support staff found themselves holed up in a posh hotel in Dubai. The purpose of their excursion remains questionable.
On the one hand the trip is being billed as a fact-finding mission that was supposed to take the group to Kandahar, the southern, war-torn province of Afghanistan where Canadians are leading the battle against Taliban insurgents. On the other hand, Senator Michael Meighen, who was on the trip, has told the media that it was merely a bid to show support for our troops.
Either way, the odds of finding facts or demonstrating support were poor. The Canadian Forces warned the group of senators beforehand that there wasn't much chance of them reaching Kandahar for security reasons. That should have been enough to stop the trip. The Canadian Forces are strained to the limit already without having to escort a small group of senators and their staff on a tour.
Instead, the senators made the trip anyway, and whiled away a week in Dubai waiting unsuccessfully for entry to Afghanistan. And so taxpayers are now looking at a $30,000 hotel bill. How much taxpayers' money the senators spent on airfare and sundries is unknown because detailed spending reports are not given to the public. (It may total as much as $150,000.) Senators only offer taxpayers an account of total travel expenses during a given fiscal year.
John Williamson, federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, believes the trip was "a junket dressed up as parliamentary business, pure and simple." He may well be right.
We have argued in this column for Senate reform that will make the upper chamber more democratically accountable. Going hand in hand with democratic reforms, however, is the need for more transparency. Senators should be obliged to detail all their travel expenses. If this were currently the case, we doubt that Senator Kenny and his committee members would have been so ready to disregard the advice of the Canadian Forces and spend a week in one of the world's most expensive cities.
