Tories plan to raise limo issue in Parliament
THE CAR USED (BY MINISTER PHILPOTT) WAS A SEDAN.
While some Hill staffers quibble over the official definition of limousine, Conservative MP Dan Albas is promising to raise the issue of Health Minister Jane Philpott’s transportation spending in the House of Commons as soon as Parliament returns in September.
In June, the Liberal government told Albas in a response to a written question that no limousines had been rented by Philpott.
But the National Post reported this week that significant amounts were spent by her office this year — amounts she said this week were “inappropriate” — to pay for services offered by an executive limousine service.
“The car used was a sedan,” Philpott’s office said, raising the hair-pulling question of whether a sedan is a limousine or not. Dictionary definitions of a “limousine” vary, but usually focus on the presence of a chauffeur and the vehicle being of a “large, luxury” type. The word is also often associated with ultraelongated vehicles.
Regardless, the minister should have been more transparent, Albas said Friday.
“It’s troubling and deeply concerning for me as I be- lieve it speaks to a deliberate pattern of deception from the Liberal government. They often use semantics when in reality, it doesn’t put them in a great light,” said Albas.
He compared the “sedan” excuse to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggesting in a campaign- time interview that light-armoured vehicles being sold to Saudi Arabia are just “jeeps.”
After getting major public pushback, Philpott said Thursday she would reimburse taxpayers for costs incurred on March 31 ($1,708) and July 12 ($1,994), and that additional expenses from trips to and from the airport were also being reviewed.
But the bigger question for Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition is whether the government deliberately lied to them, and to the public, in their answers to Albas’s order paper question.
“If it was inappropriate enough for her to actually pay it back personally, then there’s questions also about the appropriateness of her answer,” he said.
Albas submitted the written question on the Order Paper April 28. Answers were tabled June 15.
The question asked about limousines used for official business and covered the period between early November and late April, including March 31, the date of the $ 1,708 charge. Health Canada’s response was that, “with regard to government travel … the minister of health did not use rented limousines while on official business, within Canada or elsewhere.”
Each department is responsible for drafting answers to the order questions, so Philpott probably didn’t write that line herself. But the minister or parliamentary secretary for the department must sign off on answers, and in this case, it’s Philpott’s signature on the page.
It was reported in July that Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr had taken a luxurious ride, costing more than $500, to get to and from a February hockey game.
Global News found out that an internal memo called this a “sport event for the U. S.- Canada- Mexico trilateral meeting of energy ministers and ambassadors.”
But that expense doesn’t pop up in the answers to the order questions, either, even though he used government funds to pay for it — the answer says he didn’t use rented limousines “while on official business.”