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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Canadians left in dark about MPs' spending

Every cent should be accounted for publicly

By: Mia Rabson / Hill Talk

Posted: 05/19/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

OTTAWA -- It was not a good week for political accountability.

Everywhere one turned in the nation's capital this week, political scandal abounded.

Former prime minister Brian Mulroney took the stand in the public inquiry trying to figure out if there was anything inappropriate in his business dealings with disgraced German businessman and lobbyist Karlheinz Schreiber.

Liberal MP Ruby Dhalla was forced to defend herself when former foreign caregivers hired to look after her mother accused Dhalla of mistreating them.

And Ottawa Mayor Larry O'Brien was on trial for influence peddling for allegedly bribing another candidate in the 2006 Ottawa mayor's race to drop out in exchange for cash and a federal appointment to the parole board.

While all these sagas kept political minds hopping and the reputation of politics as a profession took another nosedive, Canadians might at least be glad they aren't in Britain right now.

But they shouldn't be too quick to gloat.

British Parliament is caught up in a saga of almost unprecedented proportions. Every political party has been forced to apologize after it was revealed MPs charged taxpayers millions in ridiculous expenses -- from cleaning a moat to repairing a tennis court, maintaining a swimming pool, buying big-screen televisions and house renovations. You name it, they expensed it.

What should be disturbing to Canadians is that there is absolutely no way we can easily prove that sort of thing is not happening here. OK, there aren't really as many moats in Canada that need cleaning. But the expenses of individual Canadian MPs are not covered by access to information laws, which means if there was a moat that needed cleaning and an MP expensed it, Canadians might never know.

Cabinet ministers, deputy ministers and their staff are forced to post their expenses online every few months. Opposition and backbench MPs are not.

Once a year, we get a report from the House of Commons that tells us how much each MP expensed in total the year before for things like travelling back and forth to Ottawa and maintaining a constituency office. There are no specifics, no receipts.

Manitoba's 14 MPs expensed a total of $6.3 million in 2007-08. But unless an individual MP chooses to release the details, we can never know how many trips an MP took and to where. We can never know what kind of office supplies they purchased, how many staff they paid, or what type of secondary home in Ottawa taxpayers are funding.

Taxpayers are just supposed to trust that the expenses are reviewed and approved according to proper rules.

That's what British taxpayers were supposed to do too, and look where it got them.

The only way voters will ever trust politicians is if they know how they are spending public money. While most MPs are likely honest and trustworthy, it's easy to try to cheat the system when nobody is really looking. The only way to ensure the expenses that get reimbursed are the ones legitimately needed to do a job is to make sure every cent spent is accounted for publicly.

There is no rhyme, reason or excuse for not doing it.

"ö "ö "ö

There was some proof this week that a young, inexperienced MP from the remote woods of northern Manitoba can have some impact.

Niki Ashton, who at 26 is the second-youngest MP in Ottawa, led a campaign to get the CBC to reverse its decision to cancel CBC North Country and close the one-person CBC bureau in Thompson. The decision was announced in March as part of major budget cuts and staffing reductions the national public broadcaster is making to deal with the economic downturn.

But apparently hell has no fury like radio listeners scorned. Ashton got a petition with 1,300 signatures, which she presented to Heritage Minister James Moore last month. There were Facebook pages and community meetings and a huge effort and outcry to get the CBC to back down.

On Friday, Ashton got a phone call from the CBC to let her know the Thompson bureau and a similar one in La Ronge, Sask., were going to stay open after all.

Ashton was giddy with excitement. She should be. It is the first discernible impact she has had since being elected in October, and this is the type of local issue voters really get worked up about.

Voters might not remember how Ashton voted on any particular issue or where she stands on certain issues. But they will remember she helped them save their radio station.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 19, 2009 A6

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