York-Simcoe MPP Julia Munro defends expense spending

YorkRegion.com
Aug. 1, 2014
Heidi Riedner

A York Region MPP defends the nearly $17,000 she spent on accommodations in Toronto last year.

According to a listing of members’ travel and Toronto accommodation expenses released by the legislature last week, Progressive Conservative York-Simcoe MPP Julia Munro billed taxpayers for $16,866 worth of housing in 2013-14. Munro explained the tab stems from reimbursements for hotel bills she accrues only for the periods when the legislature is sitting, noting it’s something she’s done since first being elected.

“My hotel bills have always run about a third of what it would cost to have an apartment,” she said, adding a number of other members also stay at hotels. “It’s up to each individual.”

Under the rules, any member whose principal residence is in excess of 50 kilometres away from the legislature can claim accommodation expenses of up to $21,237 annually for MPPs and $22,237 for ministers and opposition leaders. Those members whose principal residences are within 50 km of Queen’s Park are allowed to claim accommodation only if they arise from special or unusual circumstances on an overnight basis only.

In Munro’s case, she said that staying in a chain hotel within walking distance of Queen’s Park makes more sense and provides more stability in her day than leaving her Georgina home at 6 a.m., to reach the legislature for 9, and then getting back at 7 or 8 p.m. after a long day in the house which is frequently followed by meetings. She acknowledges many of her constituents make lengthy commutes daily and says she would happily travel back and forth if lackluster train service didn’t leave driving as the only realistic option.

“If we had better train service, I’d gladly be able to do it,” she said, adding the GTHA is in desperate need of all-day, two-way rail service. “It’s very unfortunate I see so many cars on the DVP and I appreciate they’re making that trip every day and I’m not.”

Munro went on to point out that MPPs who commute long distances from their ridings to Queen’s Park every day come with costs of their own, noting that one of her colleagues leaves at 4:45 a.m. each day to be at Queen’s Park on time and ends up expensing about the same amount she does except it’s for travel between his home and the legislature.

That matches the account of PC MPP Ernie Hardeman who the Toronto Star cited as having a commute of about 330 km from his Woodstock home to Queen’s Park and back and who also billed taxpayers $17,710 for doing so.

“I enjoy being home every night,” Hardeman told the Star.

In any event, Munro isn’t the first York Region MPP whose accommodation bills have caught attention. Liberal Oak Ridges-Markham MPP Dr. Helena Jaczek was one of two MPPs named in a June 2010 Toronto Star story reporting that she claimed $14,716 in living expenses for 2009-10.

Ontario Director with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, Candice Malcolm, explained that every provincial government in Canada offers its elected members travel allowances and added the budgets for these expenses tend to be overly generous. She went on to suggest that politicians should instead be looking for ways to cut government spending and save taxpayers money.

“They should set an example to all government employees about responsible spending,” she said. “MPPs who could easily commute to and from Queen’s Park, but choose instead to bill taxpayers for lodging in Toronto do not set a very good example.”

The CTF believes that a clear set of rules with respect to MPP travel expenses is needed and that existing guidelines need to be better enforced, Malcolm added.

The legislation governing Ontario’s member expenses was amended last fall.

That’s after then-MPP Peter Shurman drew criticism when it was discovered he was claiming expenses for Toronto accommodations following his move to Niagara-on-the-Lake despite serving the riding of Thornhill. Although not breaking any rules at the time, then-PC leader Tim Hudak ordered Shurman to pay back the expenses, dropped him as finance critic when he refused. Legislation was subsequently introduced to render MPPs ineligible to claim such a housing allowance if their riding is within 50 km of the legislature, although the distance from one’s principal residence comes back into play in the case of ridings that straddle that limit.

Shurman, who claimed he had cleared the expenses with Hudak beforehand, resigned Dec. 31, 2013.