SO HOW DID OUR MPS SPEND MORE THAN $112 MILLION? IN THE THIRD AND FINAL PART OF A SERIES ON MP EXPENSES, MARIE-DANIELLE SMITH LOOKS AT THE BIGGEST SPENDERS IN PARLIAMENT.
WHO SPENT THE MOST ON GIFTS, TRAVEL AND FURNITURE
A deep dive into MPs’ office budgets isn’t just a way to find out how many elected parliamentarians spent taxpayer money on Tim Hortons. (The answer: nearly 200.) It’s also a way to parse party trends, identify who the biggest spenders were and see who spent the most money on ice cream. (The answer: ex-NDP MP Raymond Côté, at $1,340.) In this third and final part of a National Post series about MP expenses — total expenditures were almost $112.3 million — Marie-Danielle Smith takes a look at some of the biggest spenders, and biggest trends, to come out of the Members’ Expenditures Report for 2015-2016, published by House Speaker Geoff Regan’s office.
The three biggest spenders out of the newly elected crop of MPs were Liberals: Jati Sidhu ($199,125), John Aldag ($196,973) and Sukh Dhaliwal ($195,218).
But new NDP and Conservative MPs tended to spend the most on average — both spending about $12,000 more per MP, on average, than Liberals.
Of re-elected MPs, the NDP had the biggest budgets on average, but Conservatives Bob Zimmer ($483,832) in B.C. and Chris Warkentin ($475,490) in Alberta spent the most.
From those not re-elected in last year’s election, Conservatives spent the most on average, with the top three spenders coming from Tory ranks. Former prime minister Stephen Harper and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were the two who spent the least from their MP budgets (although the PMO comes with significant resources of its own). NDP leader Tom Mulcair, meanwhile, was the biggest spender in Quebec — but not among the MPs in his own caucus.
Of new MPs, Bardish Chagger, the minister of small business and tourism, was the thriftiest, spending $72,853 — less than half what some others in her caucus spent.
Advertising is a wide-open category and includes everything from posting contact information and services available at the constituency office to offering “congratulatory messages, seasonal greetings, partisan opinions or advocacy statements.”
Almost $3.5 million in advertising was expensed to MP office budgets.
The re-elected MP who spent the most was the only Bloc Québécois representative to remain in the House of Commons after the last election, Louis Plamondon. He spent more than $29,000. The Bloc MPs among newly elected MPs tended to spend the most on average, followed by the NDP.
But the newcomers who spent the most were Liberals: Bob Nault ($15,649), Status of Women Minister Patty Hajdu (14,984) and ex-fisheries minister Hunter Tootoo ($14,065), who since left the Liberal caucus citing addiction problems.
Only two MPs who were active during the whole financial year spent nothing on advertising, Conservatives Scott Reid and Blake Richards.
Conservatives elected under the previous government tended to spend the most on gifts, which often consist of promotional items such as pens, notepads or other trinkets.
Re-elected Tories spent about double what re-elected Grits spent, and triple the gift budgets of NDP MPs, on average. But out of the new crop, New Democrats tended to spend the most on average.
However, it was Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu who spent the most on gifts out of new MPs at $3,793 with the money going to such things as shopping bags that include phone numbers and addresses for her constituency office.
Still, MP gift budgets tend to be rather small. No one’s gift budget topped $5,000, though MPs spent a bit over $150,000 combined. And more than 200 MPs active during the 2015-16 year didn’t spend any money at all in this category.
For some MPs, such as Conservative Harold Albrecht, buying gifts means looking for trinkets specific to businesses located in their ridings — in Albrecht’s case, maple product samples.
For others, the gift budgets are mainly used for things such as pens and notepads branded with the addresses and phone numbers of constituency offices.
MPs from Quebec, whether from the Bloc Québécois or independents, tended to spend the most on hospitality. That’s the province that accumulated the most liquor store purchases, too.
Yvonne Jones, the Liberal MP for Labrador, came out on top for hospitality spending at $8,948, and another Liberal MP, Pierre Breton, spent the most among those newly elected: $4,245. Of new MPs, BQers spent almost double what the next-biggest spenders in the NDP spent. In total, MPs spent about $775,000. Hospitality costs often came from catering big events — such as a $4,000 Christmas social in NDP MP Peter Julian’s riding, Conservative MP Peter Van Loan’s $3,400 pancake breakfast or NDP MP Sheila Malcolmson’s $1,923 Parliamentary Restaurant bill for an International Women’s Day brunch.
But they also paid for things like coffee, cupcakes, balloons and entertainment — such as a $200 clown contract or a $700 pipe and drum band performance.
The vast majority of expenses related to travel have to do with getting from constituencies to Ottawa and back again, meaning that MPs from faraway provinces and territories, particularly in the West and the North, tended to spend the most in this category. Travel costs for MPs totalled more than $7.7 million.
That helps to explain why Conservatives, with many MPs elected in the West, spend the most travel bucks on average for members, excluding staff travel expenses.
But it was Manitoba MP Niki Ashton’s office that spent the most on member travel, at more than $60,000.
Cancelled trips lost the House of Commons more than $26,800 — that’s based on 40 MPs and/or their staffers who had to cancel travel due to “unforeseen circumstances.”
About $45,700 was spent on trips to Washington D.C. to meet with United States officials.
The most frequent traveller to D.C. was Conservative MP Tony Clement, now the opposition foreign affairs critic. Only three MPs expensed trips to New York City for meetings at the United Nations.
Well over $75,000 was spent on MPs’ trips to attend events as guest speakers — more than 50 MPs did so, with ex-Conservative MP Mike Lake and Green party leader Elizabeth May clocking in the most appearances.
Few took advantage of the opportunity to expense trips for language training. Only 10 MPs did so.
Kellie Leitch, an Ontario MP vying for the Conservative leadership, took six trips to Quebec for French language training — the most by far, and all of them after her party’s defeat in the October election.
Furniture costs are usually associated with the items bought for constituency offices. A big turnover of MPs, like we saw last year, usually means an influx of these costs.
Just over $884,000 was spent furnishing new offices across the country. Taking out averages, recently elected New Democrats spent the most, followed by the Liberals.
Of new MPs, the Liberals’ Angelo Iacono spent the most — $26,462 — on new furniture.
Out of those re-elected, House Leader and Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc spent the most, at $13,157. Re-elected Liberals spent about double what re-elected Conservatives spent on furniture.
But it was ex-Conservative MP Greg Rickford who managed to spend the most, of those who weren’t re-elected. He racked up almost $5,000 in furniture spending during his last six months in office.
The total amount charged to MP budgets for furniture was almost $1.3 million.