Minister vows NDP will pay for mail costs

OTTAWA — Transport Minister Lisa Raitt says she will speak with the head of Canada Post to ensure that NDP MPs are required to pay back the $ 1.13 million a House board says they owe for partisan literature sent out using their parliamentary mailing privileges.

The House of Commons spending watchdog, the Board of Internal Economy, ruled Wednesday that 23 New Democrat MPs owed a total of $ 1.17 million for mail sent to constituents using their parliamentary “franking” privileges. Of this, $ 36,096 was owed to the House of Commons, presumably for printing or mailing supplies, and the rest to Canada Post.

The Commons has no way to collect the money owed Canada Post but Raitt, the minister responsible for the post office, promised to take steps to collect on the debt.

Rest assured, every single penny that was misspent by the NDP will be paid back to hard- working Canadian taxpayers.

LISA RAITT

TRANSPORT MINISTER

“Rest assured, every single penny that was misspent by the NDP will be paid back to hardworking Canadian taxpayers,” Raitt said in a statement, adding she would be discussing with the head of Canada Post what its plans are to recover the money.

The NDP insists its mailings were allowed under House of Commons rules and has denounced the board as a “kangaroo court.” The party said it plans to challenge the board’s decision in Federal Court.

A document prepared by House of Commons staff for the board last month found evidence of mailings that breached the rules against promoting political parties.

“In short, it would appear that the mailings were not messages from the individual Members as Members, but rather were prepared by and for the benefit of the NDP as a political party and to advance electoral purposes,” the report said.

All the mail included references to the NDP’s website, ndp. ca, and some listed “Tom Mulcair MP” as the return address for a survey form included. The Commons found “these documents demonstrate an activity orchestrated on behalf of a political party for which Commons resources ( envelopes and frank) were used.”

The document included samples of mail sent by MPs Guy Caron, Alexandre Boulerice, Nycole Turmel and others.

If the party is required to reimburse these MPs for the repayments to Canada Post, it would take a bite out of the NDP’s campaign war chest in advance of the 2015 federal election. The amount the board says the party owes is more than the average monthly fundraising take of $ 840,000 it reported over the first three months of the year.

The board is continuing to investigate another potentially expensive issue involving the use of House of Commons resources: the costs of staff who worked in NDP “satellite” offices in Quebec.

The board is expected to hold a rare summer meeting in July to deal with staff members who worked in NDP offices in Montreal and Quebec City, dating back to 2011.

If found guilty, NDP MPs may be required to pay back salaries, benefits and other staff costs that could add substantially to the bill it already faces for the mailings.

Last month, NDP leader Tom Mulcair was forced to testify before the procedure and house affairs committee about the mailings and satellite offices.