GG’s retirement gravy train needs to hit the brakes

Thirteen years after the end of her tenure as Governor General of Canada, Adrienne Clarkson still bills taxpayers for more than $100,000 per year in expenses.

Not only that, but we only know about this because the expenses get red flagged when they exceed $100K. A National Post reporter found out about it and reported on it last week.

But all governors general since 1978 have access to that expense money. For all we know, every one of them billed $99,000 every year, sums that would have been mixed into the general spending budget and never scrutinized.

But Clarkson has received more than $1.1 million to date. Don’t ask what she spent it on, though. Rideau Hall doesn’t consider that public information, apparently.

It’s hard to know where to start assessing what’s wrong with this picture.

Why are retired GGs allowed to continue billing taxpayers for office expenses in perpetuity? Why are the expense claims cloaked in secrecy? The official explanation is that the retirees are still highly sought after for various good causes, and also frequently asked to be speakers, so the expenses are justifiable.

That’s a matter that should be up for debate, which is why Justin Trudeau has promised a full investigation into the practice in general and the specifics around this case.

Apparently Clarkson is the only recent retired Queen’s representative on the radar because of the size of her expense claims. Why are her claims so much higher than her colleagues? It’s not like she’s volunteering. She also receives an annuity of $143,816 and the government has contributed $4.8 million to the Institute of Canadian Citizenship, which Clarkson founded and of which she remains a co-chair.

For prescriptive purposes, let’s separate this into two pieces. One, the practice overall, and two, Clarkson’s case. Last one first.

Clarkson has defended herself in an op-ed published in the Globe and Mail. But that defence did not include any specifics regarding what she has spent the $1.1 million on. The public needs access to that information. Trudeau’s promised investigation needs to release all that. What was the expense for? When, where and how? Let’s not have any anonymity or arguments about confidentiality.

This isn’t Clarkson’s money, or even her retirement annuity. She may be entitled to a degree of privacy around those things but not around her office expenses. Let’s see what Clarkson has been spending our money on.

As for the practice overall, on the surface at least, it stinks. What other retired public official collects not only what amounts to a pension but can also charge taxpayers for office expenses? Forever?

The argument that even in retirement, GGs are called upon to do good works that benefit the country and its citizens should be heard. But surely the default source of funding those good works shouldn’t always be the taxpayer.

In the grand scheme of things, the dollars involved here aren’t that significant. But it’s about much more than that. The government will be making a mistake if it doesn’t recognize that this sort of opaque entitlement drives struggling Canadians nuts.

As it should.

What other retired public official collects not only what amounts to a pension but can also charge taxpayers for office expenses? Forever?