Our MPs’ spending secrets
OTTAWA – Eleven dollars and 45 cents for computer mouse pads, telephone equipment worth $13, a $15 rug and a $10,203 bill to move an MP’s Parliament Hill office 37 steps, from one side of a stairwell to the other.
That is about all that’s known of the almost $128 million in expenses claimed by federal politicians in the last fiscal year.
The rest of it – the mundane, the understandable and the exorbitant – may never be revealed thanks to a culture of secrecy on Parliament Hill that appears to have bled across partisan lines.
Twenty cabinet ministers and backbenchers resigned or will retire in Britain after a newspaper was handed a computer disc containing expense claims on everything from a moat-cleaning service to the rental of a dirty movie. A heavily censored version of all British MPs’ expenses for the past three years was released on a parliamentary website this week and Scotland Yard launched a criminal investigation into some claims yesterday.
The House of Representatives in Washington now plans to post members’ expenses online each quarter, and similar pre-emptive plans are developing in New Zealand.
But nothing of that sort is likely to bring more transparency to Ottawa. In Canada, you can see how much of your money your MP has spent – an annual tally comes out each fall – but you have no right to learn how they spent it.
Of the 37 MPs contacted in the past several weeks, just four agreed to disclose the detailed information on specific expenses requested by the Toronto Star. A vast number simply ignored the appeal.
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Jema54 Says:
Why would any Conservatives speak to the Red rag (Star)? What did Scott Ried buy for 2 dollars? Why did the Star not launch an investigation into that? Things that make me go Hummm?
Posted on June 20th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Jema54 Says:
Further, where is all the Adscam $$ the Liberanos stole from us – what was the real number- why is no msm investigating that ? No, Puffins/Dippers/Blocheads, we have not forgotten…
Posted on June 20th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
Mac Says:
I’m guessing the Red Star is hoping to bring a repeat of the successful trashing which the New Labour government is taking in Britain.
Posted on June 21st, 2009 at 9:37 am
Jema54 Says:
You are probably correct, Mac. The msm really do have an unsolved scandal , that they could exploit and smear with; adscam, but they appear to be reluctant to ‘report’ on that; implying compliance, IMO.
Posted on June 21st, 2009 at 3:32 pm