Liberal MPS go it alone on posting expenses

Monday, staffers in the offices of Liberal MPs across the country started tracking their bosses’ travel and hospitality expenses, preparing to post them online this time next month.

For the first time, voters will be able to see how much their representatives spend on each plane trip, taxi ride and dinner.

But voters in ridings represented by MPs from other parties will continue to be in the dark.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa on Tuesday this will be the “first step of what I hope will be a cascade of transparency and openness as the other parties try to outdo each other. I would love to see a competition in this, to try and see which party can truly be most transparent to Canadians because right now, the bar is set so low that I’m happy to raise the bar to this level.”

The other parties said they will not be joining the competition.

Government House leader Peter Van Loan was not available for interviews, but his office sent out a release promising “openness, transparency and accountability.”

“Canadians expect that taxpayers’ dollars will be spent efficiently and in a transparent manner, and we are working towards improving this,” the release said. “We are happy that the board of internal economy, which has representation from all recognized parliamentary caucuses, has been discussing this important initiative.”

The board, a secretive all-party committee that controls parliamentary spending, met in Ottawa on Monday, where they discussed how to establish disclosure rules for all MPs, said Nathan Cullen, one of the NDP’s representatives on the committee.

Cullen called the Liberals’ plan to post expense details online a “stunt.”

“You actually have to change the system and make it work and make it accountable,” he said. “Self-reporting didn’t work in the Senate and it’s not going to work for MPs. Folks are playing politics with this … but we’re interested in doing serious work and getting it changed.”

The Liberal MPs will be responsible for posting their own expenses, Cullen pointed out. He said the NDP wants outside oversight.

Trudeau told reporters Tuesday that it will make for more work for MPs’ staff, but he believes it may help rebuild Canadians’ trust in their politicians.

“We’re proud to be doing it, but we will continue to take in requests and feedback and response; hopefully the other parties will realize that openness and transparency is not just something you run an election campaign on,” he said.