NDP MPs to repay $2.75M over office budget claims

Board invoices 68 members for inappropriately covering cost of party staffers

OTTAWA— A large number of New Democrat MPs are being ordered to help pay back the $2.75 million they took from their office budgets to pay for staffers working in party satellite offices in Montreal and Quebec City.

The board of internal economy ruled last August that it was inappropriate for MPs to use their parliamentary budgets to cover the work done by staff in the satellite offices. On Tuesday night, Commons Speaker Andrew Scheer revealed that the secretive board had decided to send invoices to 68 MPs — including House officers and one former MP. They had pooled their office budgets to pay the salaries of staffers working in satellite offices set up to support the influx of New Democrat MPs from Quebec after their sur- prising success in the 2011 election.

“Since individual members’ office budgets were used to supplement the NDP research office budget, the board will be directing that each participating member personally reimburse the salary costs under question,” Scheer, who is chair of the board, said in the statement.

The bill for a total of $2,749,362 covers all salary costs incurred at the satellite offices between May 2, 2011 — the date of the last federal election — and Dec. 31, 2014.

News of the ruling first came via New Democrat MP Nycole Turmel, who the New Democratic Party insisted was acting as a spokeswoman for the board even as she denounced the decision.

“None of the MPs has been heard by the board of internal economy. Nor have any of the employees responsible for this parliamentary work been heard. It is also important to note that multiple errors have been identified in the amounts cited,” Turmel said in the statement.