Two senators repay expenses, deny wrongdoing
Two senior leaders in the Senate have repaid disputed expenses, a day before the release of a massive audit that reveals questionable expense claims. Another has reimbursed the cost of four trips but disagrees the expenses were a problem.

thestar.com
June 8, 2015
By Richard J. Brennan

On the eve of a massive audit that flags almost $1 million in questionable Senate spending, some frustrated senators have begun repaying expenses - but under protest.

Senate Speaker Leo Housakos and Sen. James Cowan, the opposition leader in the Senate, announced Monday they had each repaid expenses flagged by the audit team and said they would not challenge the audit findings.

And Sen. Nicole Eaton, the deputy speaker, has reimbursed $3,489 for four trips to Toronto but said she “fundamentally” disagreed with the auditor’s assessment that the expenses were a problem.

On Tuesday, the Senate will formally release the findings of the two-year, $21-million audit of expenses by auditor general Michael Ferguson and his team, a report that will turn a spotlight on the spending habits of 30 current and retired senators.

But some senators flagged in Ferguson’s report insist they’ve been unfairly targeted, saying the expenses highlighted by auditors were approved and reimbursed by Senate administration.

In a pointed letter to Ferguson, Manitoba Sen. Janis Johnson says she is “disappointed” by his findings.

Ferguson apparently took issue with the fact that Johnson used several Senate trips for personal matters too. But Johnson argues that the primary reason for each trip was Senate work, writing “my personal interests did not drive the agenda, parliamentary business did.”

But Johnson, who has $22,076 of expenses in dispute, according to a CTV report, accuses the audit team of ignoring both the material she provided to back up her claims and the Senate’s own travel policy.

“My expenses were in complete compliance with that policy and any conclusion to the contrary is inaccurate and misleading,” wrote Johnson.

She said she intends to challenge his findings and expects the spending will be found to be “wholly legitimate.”

Sen. David Tkachuk says he has repaid $3,900 of $7,200 in expenses questioned by the auditors but said he will fight the rest, many of which are for hotel stays in Toronto when he stopped overnight while making his way back from Saskatchewan.

“I’m adamant on these. I think he got them totally wrong,” Tkachuk told the Star in an interview.

NDP MP Charlie Angus compared the senators to “spoiled children” who react badly when they don’t get their own way.

“This is classic with the senators, they are like these spoiled children who are saying, ‘The auditor general is being mean to us, the NDP have no right challenging us,’ ” Angus told reporters.

Revelations that the senior leadership in the Senate were themselves part of the auditor general’s investigation had raised questions about their role in setting up the process to deal with questionable claims.

Housakos suggested that those concerns prompted his decision to repay the cash.

“I do not wish there to be any question surrounding the integrity of the process or the manner in which it was implemented,” he said in a statement Monday.

“I remain steadfast in my belief that all of my actions as a senator and now as Speaker have been in good faith, in adherence with the rules governing the Senate and most of all with due regard for Canadians,” Housakos said.

Media reports said Housakos owed $6,770 and Cowan had $10,397 in disputed expenses.

In the statement, Housakos said it was “incumbent” on him to act in a way that “protects the integrity of the procedures and processes we put in place resulting from the auditor general’s report.

“That is why I have chosen, without reservation, to reimburse in full the amount relating to my Senate office as noted by the auditor general rather than exercise my right to arbitration,” he said.