Senator Duffy: ‘I may have been mistaken’
Pledges to pay back housing allowance for P.E.I. residence
OTTAWA — Admitting he may have made a mistake by saying his main residence was on Prince Edward Island, Sen. Mike Duffy has pledged to repay thousands of dollars in housing allowances he has been claiming from taxpayers.
Duffy, who has ducked detailed questions from reporters for days, made the surprise comments in television interviews Friday. He said he rents a room in Charlottetown during the winter when he visits the Island, while spending summers at a cottage in Cavendish. He has a residence is in Kanata, a suburb of Ottawa.
Duffy said he had voluntarily decided to pay back the living expenses he has claimed, saying the controversy his claims have prompted over the last several weeks has been a “major distraction.” He said he and his wife made the decision to repay the money Thursday night, although he didn’t believe he had done anything wrong. He said Senate forms to claim a housing allowance are vague.
“The Senate rules on housing allowances aren’t clear, and the forms are confusing. I filled out the Senate forms in good faith and believed I was in compliance with the rules. Now it turns out I may have been mistaken,” Duffy said in a statement.
“Rather than let this issue drag on, my wife and I have decided that the allowance associated with my house in Ottawa will be repaid.”
It was unclear how much he planned to repay. Available public records show he has claimed $42,807 in housing allowances from Sept. 1, 2010, to Nov. 30, 2012. He became a senator in 2009.
Duffy has been under investiga- tion, along with two other senators — Sen. Mac Harb and Sen. Patrick Brazeau — for housing allowance claims made over the past three years. The result of an audit into their expenses is expected next month. A fourth senator, Pamela Wallin, is the subject of a separate audit focused on her travel.
Duffy’s announcement caught many in the Senate flat-footed, and it was unclear late Friday how the repayment promise and his explanations would be treated.
“The Senate committee on internal economy has not heard formally from Senator Duffy,” Sen. David Tkachuk, who chairs the powerful oversight committee, told Postmedia News.
“The steering committee (overseeing the investigations) will be meeting to discuss this next week.” Under Senate rules, senators who live more than 100 kilometres from Parliament Hill are allowed to claim up to $22,000 a year in living expenses in the capital.
Under provincial rules in Prince Edward Island, Duffy is not considered a resident of the Island because he doesn’t spend enough time there to qualify for a resident tax credit.
The Constitution requires a senator to be a resident of the province he or she represents, but the term is not well-defined. The Senate is currently reviewing the interpretation.
Though he was born in Charlottetown, Duffy spent more than 30 years working as a journalist in Ottawa before joining the red chamber.
But he told CTV Friday, “I am entitled to be a senator from P.E.I.; I meet all the constitutional requirements. There is nothing in the rules anywhere that says how much time you should spend on P.E.I.”
Senators are required to fill out forms once a year declaring where their primary residence is, and must also fill out monthly forms declaring how many days they spend in Ottawa to claim the daily allowance of $29 per day for those when they are at their secondary residence.