It鈥檚 becoming increasingly difficult for public officials to keep their expense accounts out of the public eye, a development that鈥檚 good for both the public and the politicians.
Knowing the public is watching helps motivate officials to be more frugal and accountable; it could also spare them from unpleasant surprises in the future, such as having investigations into expenditures turned over to the RCMP.
It should also inspire MLAs in sa国际传媒 to speed up the process of making reports of their expenditures more public. No one is implying any sa国际传媒 legislators鈥� expenses are fodder for a police probe, but those who provide the money to pay the expenses are becoming more insistent on knowing how that money is spent. Simply making that information available, not a technically difficult task, will alleviate many concerns.
The New Democratic Party opposition has already promised to publish weekly expense reports, and has urged the sa国际传媒 Liberals to do the same.
Pamela Wallin is the latest senator to be in the spotlight for questionable spending. An independent audit of her travel costs showed more than $120,000 claimed for official business should not have been billed to the Senate. The audit has been referred to the RCMP for further investigation.
The Mounties are already investigating senators Mike Duffy, Mac Harb and Patrick Brazeau, who filed for expenses for living in Ottawa while claiming their principal residences were elsewhere.
Politicians鈥� expenses, while they might be comparatively small parts of provincial and national spending, are an easy target of public wrath. Unlike complex budgets, expense-account numbers are easily grasped 鈥� it鈥檚 hard to know how much health care or national defence should cost, but everyone knows $16 is too much to pay for a glass of orange juice.
Public anger ensues when such instances come to light, and the rage seems out of proportion to the cost, at first glance.
鈥淚t鈥檚 the heroin, if you will, of politics these days,鈥� said David Dingwall of the issue of expenses when attention was focused on his perceived excessive spending as president of the Royal Canadian Mint in 2005. The allegations, mainly coming from the Conservative Opposition at the time, forced him out of office.
Although he was later cleared of any impropriety and awarded more than $400,000 in severance pay, Dingwall鈥檚 lingering legacy is his statement to a parliamentary committee: 鈥淚 am entitled to my entitlements.鈥�
And that, regardless of the amounts involved, is what rubs the public the wrong way 鈥� the sense of entitlement that seems to afflict those whose expenses are paid out of the public purse. As public servants, they should be paid for living and travel expenses associated with the execution of their duties. But being public servants does not entitle them to a higher standard of living.
It should not cost any more to park a bottom in an airplane seat just because it happens to be a senatorial posterior. A meal for an MLA should not cost any more than a meal for an ordinary human being. A member of Parliament does not require a $1,000 hotel room for a comfortable night鈥檚 sleep.
Most of sa国际传媒鈥檚 MLAs are coming around to the idea that posting receipts and expenses is a good idea. While those expenses are not a huge part of the overall budget, people can take a certain comfort in knowing that if the politicians are handling our pennies carefully, they are likely to be more careful in how they handle our dollars.
