National Post (National Edition)
JOHNSTON TO UNVEIL HIS EX-GG EXPENSES
‘VERY IMPORTANT’
OTTAWA • After a week of controversy over the expenses Rideau Hall is still paying for former governors general — and the lack of transparency around what the funds are being used for — David Johnston has become the first to promise to release his expenses publicly.
Johnston, who was governor general from 2010 to 2017, told reporters on Parliament Hill Tuesday that he believes it’s important for the public to see how Rideau Hall spends its money.
“It is very important for the public to take an interest in that to be sure the money is well spent,” Johnston told reporters. “In my own case, we have just finished the first year since I stepped down and we will present a report.”
The controversy over the expenses kicked off after the National Post reported last week that Adrienne Clarkson still expenses well over $100,000 annually, a number that surfaced only because it’s high enough to be listed in the government’s public accounts. Sources have since told the Post that in some years Clarkson’s expenses have topped $200,000.
Johnston did not directly address Clarkson’s expense claims in his comments on Tuesday. The Post contacted the offices of the three other living former governors general to see if they would follow Johnston’s lead in releasing their expenses, but none provided an answer by deadline — in part because all three are currently away from Canada.
Ed Schreyer, who was governor general from 1979 to 1984, is travelling out of the country, his assistant told the Post. Clarkson, who served from 1999 to 2005, is on a lengthy trip in Europe. And Michaëlle Jean, who served from 2005 to 2010, is still in Paris where she is the outgoing head of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie.
Both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and a Rideau Hall spokesperson have said the expenses program will be reviewed, though neither has specifically promised public disclosure of expenses.
“These are people who’ve stepped up and offered tremendous service to this country but Canadians expect a certain level of transparency and accountability and we’re going to make sure we’re moving forward in a thoughtful way,” Trudeau told reporters last week.
It is not yet known exactly how the expense claims compare from one governor general to the next. Rideau Hall has said that all have made some use of the reimbursement program, which was established in 1979 on the premise that retired governors general are still expected to perform duties related to their time in office.
Clarkson is singled out in government records because she is the only one to regularly claim more than $100,000 under the Temporary Help Services line item, which sources with direct knowledge of the program have told the Post is a line item representing basic office expenses and staffing. (Once a supplier charges more than $100,000, they must be identified in the government’s public accounts.)
Added up, Clarkson’s expense claims in that category total more than $1.1 million since 2005. However, sources say she has filed additional expense claims under other line items, which, being less than $100,000 per year are not listed publicly. A source with direct knowledge of the program has told the Post that Clarkson has in the past vehemently opposed the notion of the former governors general being required to disclose their expenses.
Clarkson has not responded to the Post’s repeated requests for comment over the last week, but in an op-ed published in The Globe and Mail on Friday she defended her spending.
“Last year, I fulfilled 182 commitments, many of them public events,” she wrote. “I gave 16 speeches with no honorarium or fees, and 10 pieces of writing for no fee. All of this was related to my life as Canada’s 26th governor-general, and all of this came to me at the request of Canadians.”