Senate expenses proposal would ensure public told of reimbursements, Tory senator says
The Senate is now promising to let Canadians know when senators have to reimburse taxpayers for inappropriate expenses.

thestar.com
April 29, 2015
Joanna Smith

The Senate is promising to let Canadians know when senators have to reimburse taxpayers for as part of a newly adopted dispute resolution process.

“This is part of our ongoing commitment to ensuring transparency and accountability for the Senate. Canadians expect and deserve nothing less,” Conservative Sen. Leo Housakos, the acting Senate speaker, said in an emailed statement Wednesday.

The statement came following a closed-door meeting of the Senate standing committee on internal economy, budgets and administration Wednesday morning, where senators debated a draft resolution that would allow senators who face questions over claims to quietly repay the money.

The draft resolution said senators ordered to reimburse expenses - following a confidential preliminary review by the subcommittee on agenda and procedure, also known as the steering committee - could appeal to an impartial special arbiter in dispute resolution process that would take place behind closed doors.

It also said senators could end that process at any time by agreeing to repay the money and that the only time the wider internal economy committee would be told about it is if the senator refused to either repay or participate in the process, or if the arbiter rendered a decision that was unfavourable to the senator.

The Senate would not release a final version of the resolution passed Wednesday, saying it was not a public document, but a senior Senate source said the plan never was to keep repayments under wraps.

Housakos committed in his statement to being transparent about all reimbursements.

“The appointment of an independent adjudicator ensures that questions of reimbursement will be dealt with in a timely and open fashion. All decisions on reimbursement by the Steering Committee, the arbitrator and the Standing Committee on Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration will be made public,” Housakos said.

“This dispute resolution process is another example of our commitment to modernizing the Senate.

A Senate source had earlier expressed concerns about the secrecy surrounding the process, a theme NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair followed up on in question period Wednesday.

“Conservatives are setting up yet another kangaroo court, this time to protect senators who charge fraudulent expenses. If they have nothing to hide, why are they covering it up?” Mulcair said in the House of Commons.

Leaving the meeting Wednesday morning, Housakos confirmed this binding arbitration process is how the Senate plans to deal with any disagreements arising from the upcoming report by Auditor General Michael Ferguson.

“We think it’s only appropriate that it’s not senators that cast judgment on other senators’ files,” Housakos told the Star, describing the new process as “independent and arm’s length.”

Housakos also said the Senate is committed to making the report by Ferguson, expected the first week of June, public.

“We’ve committed to that. You can’t get more transparency than that and then you are going to have an arbitration process where the arbitrator will rule and all reimbursements are public. You can’t get more public than that,” Housakos said.

Housakos has been acting speaker since December, when Pierre Claude Nolin, who died last week, stepped aside for health reasons.