Wallin faces more scrutiny of expenses
Senator likely to have to repay ‘a good portion’ of $20,978 she claimed for ‘networking events’
OTTAWA— Sen. Pamela Wallin will likely end up being asked to repay many of the travel expenses she filed for dinners and meetings to discuss everything from ballet to the challenges facing the federal postal service.
The Star has learned the three senators on the steering committee that called in forensic accounting firm Deloitte to examine travel expenses filed by Wallin sat down Tuesday afternoon to comb through the $20,978 worth of claims auditors had sent back to them to consider.
“Some we have asked to be repaid and some we deemed to be within the rules . . . A good portion of them we deemed would have to be repaid,” Conservative Sen. Carolyn Stewart Olsen said in an interview Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the Senate internal economy committee recommended Wallin reimburse $121,348 in inappropriately claimed expenses discovered by Deloitte, including the $38,369 she has already repaid.
Conservative Sen. Gerald Comeau confirmed that he, Stewart Olsen and Liberal Sen. George Furey went over the nearly $21,000 worth of claims that the auditors had said required further review.
Comeau chairs both the steering committee and the larger Senate committee on internal economy.
“We did go through the claims and there is some additional research being dealt with by the administration. This will determine the final amount, which will be reported to (the internal economy committee) when it next reconvenes,” Comeau said in an email sent through his spokeswoman Wednesday.
At issue are $20,978 in expenses related to both speeches and what Wallin described as “networking events” — 57 occasions between April 2009 and August 2011 for which the senator claimed she was on Senate business while she was having dinner or meetings with individuals whose names were removed by Deloitte to protect their privacy.
On Sept.11, 2009, Wallin met “individual #18,” an executive from Canada Post, to “discuss the business and technological challenges facing Canada Post.” On Oct. 18, 2009, she went to a private dinner to meet “individual #54,” “a key player in the solidarity movement that led to profound political change in Poland.”
A Bay Street investor, a representative from the New York City Ballet, the heads of charitable organizations and the chief financial officer of “an aviation company specialized in operating within hostile environments” were all joined by Wallin as she claimed to be on Senate business.
The Deloitte report does not indicate how much Wallin was reimbursed by the Senate for travel associated with these networking activities.
Twenty-seven of the “networking” events were added to a 2013 version of her electronic office calendar — some more than three years after they took place — and 17 of them did not appear in any version of her calendar, according to the examination by Deloitte.
Wallin, through her office, told the auditors that she viewed these activities as part of her role as a senator.
“She wanted to be open, accessible and in touch with as many ‘communities of interest’ as possible to ensure that she
“Some we have asked to be repaid and some we deemed to be within the rules.” CAROLYN STEWART OLSEN CONSERVATIVE SENATOR, ON TRAVEL EXPENSE CLAIMS
would be an activist and effective senator,” said an explanation cited in the Deloitte report.
Stewart Olsen said many of the activities behind the $20,978 in additional claims occurred in Toronto, where Wallin owns a condo and would often stop over on her way to her primary residence in Wadena, Sask. Stewart Olsen said it is her view that if senators travel outside the provinces or territories they represent, the reason should be tied closely to regional interests.
Wallin called the Deloitte report “the result of a fundamentally flawed and unfair process” but said she would pay back whatever is asked of her out of her own resources.