The Commons Board of Internal Economy has hit rewind on its controversial decision to reduce MPs’ $284,700 basic annual office budgets as part of the House’s strategic and operating review to find $30.3-million in savings from the Commons’ $441-million overall budget by 2014-15, and instead the MOBs will be frozen for the next three years.“MPs have a responsibility to meet the needs of their constituents. So they have to address their needs locally and they have to address them here. So we can’t cut them that far, that they can’t do their job,” said Government Whip Gordon O’Connor (Carleton-Mississippi Mills, Ont.), who is also a spokesperson for the BOIE, said in the scrum outside the House on Dec. 11.
The BOIE had previously announced a three-year reduction plan last March for MPs’ office budgets—which are allocated to each MP to cover the costs of operating their Hill and constituency offices, including staff pay—last spring. Following this decision, MPs across party lines said with cuts being made to frontline services through other government departments, their Hill and riding office workload had increased and said the reductions could affect their ability to serve constituents effectively.
The secretive, all-party Commons Board of Internal Economy, which makes decisions on the administration and finances of the House, announced its strategic and operating review plans to reduce the House of Commons’ $441-million budget by a total of $30.3-million by 2014-15, at the end of a three-year plan, on March 12.
Mr. O’Connor said those savings have been found elsewhere, and at a Sept. 24 meeting the BOIE decided it was no longer necessary to cut back on the office funds available to MPs. This decision wasn’t made public until last month. Last year, according to the summary of members’ expenses for 2011-12, MOBs cost the House central budget approximately $92.7-million.
The BOIE had previously decided to upload additional costs, such as the $311,000 annual cost of language training for staffers, previously taken from the House central budget, onto the backs of the MPs’ office budgets, and, as a result, reconsidered plans to reduce the central budget for MOBs by approximately $2-million by 2014-15.
Instead, Mr. O’Connor said the MOBs will be frozen at the previous, 2011-12 levels, which means MPs will continue to enjoy a basic office budget of $284,700 (MPs are given additional funds for ridings that are larger-than-average in geography and/or population) at least until the end of the 2014-15 fiscal year.
Meanwhile, planned reductions to House officer office budgets—which includes the budgets of party leaders, House leaders, research offices, chief whips, and caucus chairs, and which were approved in tandem with reductions to MOBs—will go ahead as announced last March. The House officer budgets, allocated to all recognized parties in the House, being reduced by almost 7.5 per cent, meaning an annual total decrease of around $600,000 each year, over a three-year plan. By 2014-15, House officers’ cumulative budgets will have been reduced by an estimated $1.8-million.
However, it is already more than half way through the 2012-13 fiscal year—the first of the three-year reduction plan.
Heather Bradley, director of communications to House Speaker Andrew Scheer (Regina-Qu’Appelle, Sask.) in an email to The Hill Times, said all strategic and operating review reduction for the 2012-13 fiscal year were set to be approved in the supplementary estimates ‘B,’ which were tabled in the House on Nov. 8, including the planned reductions to MOBs.
However, explained Ms. Bradley, when the BOIE “decided that a freeze was more appropriate” in September, the supplementary spending estimates had not yet been put forward, and so the MOB cuts were taken out of the plan.
Ms. Bradley said the planned $30.3-million in savings to be achieved by 2014-15 as part of the House’s strategic and operating review will not be affected by the decision to freeze MOBs instead.
The Commons Board of International Economy, chaired by House Speaker Mr. Scheer, also includes Mr. O’Connor and NDP Whip Nycole Turmel (Hull-Aylmer, Que.), who serve as the BOIE’s only two spokespeople for media, as well as NDP MP Nathan Cullen (Skeena-Bulkley Valley, B.C.), Government House Leader Peter Van Loan (York-Simcoe, Ont.), Conservative MP Rob Merrifield (Yellowhead, Alta.), and Liberal MP Judy Foote (Random-Bruin-St. George’s, Nfld.).
Similarly, it was announced House Officers’ budgets would also be cut.
On March 12, the BOIE approved a multi-year reduction strategy as part of its strategic and operating review to find $30.3-million savings in the House of Commons’ more than $441-million budget, a 6.9 per cent reduction. As part of these reductions, it was announced that MPs’ office budgets would be reduced by approximately two per cent, with budgets set to be collectively decreased by a total of $672,000 per year for the next three years until 2014-15, at which point they would have achieved more than $2-million in reductions.
In addition to these reductions, on March 12, the BOIE also announced other measures to achieve the target savings.
Starting April 1, 2013, all MPs will be required to purchase flight passes (like buying a bulk of airplane tickets at once) for travel, instead of just purchasing tickets separately for each trip. MPs are allocated a total of 64 return airline trips to and from Ottawa at the start of each fiscal year, the cost of which comes out of the central House budget. All 64 trips can be used for “regular” travel between Ottawa and the MPs’ ridings, or 25 of those 64 trips can be used for “special” travel.
But now, when using regular trips MPs will be required to use flight passes: for trips under two hours MPs now have to use the Tango Plus fare class (which employees are always required to use), while MPs are eligible to fly business class on trips over two hours long. When using “special” trips, MPs can only used the Tango Plus fare class.
Meanwhile, the constituency office furniture and equipment improvement fund, which gave MPs $5,000 annually, has been scheduled for elimination in 2014-15 in order to achieve more than $1.5-million in savings.
As well, the House has found savings by reducing the level of printing of Parliamentary publications—the reductions will be phased in over the next three years. The House prints approximately 16 million pages each year, but it wants to reduce that number by 80 per cent by September 2013. Printing reductions will save the House $623,000 in 2012-13, and these reductions are estimated to reach a savings of $1.3-million by 2014-15.
As of January 2013, Parliamentary publications (except for government bills) will only be available to the Press Gallery in electronic format; publications will no longer be distributed to MPs’ offices; Private Members’ bills will only be in electronic format; copies provided to the Chamber will be reduced to the minimum required; distribution counters in the House and Senate will receive 50 per cent fewer copies; and committees have also been asked to try and reduce the number of printed copies of their reports.
In light of these reductions, the BOIE informed MPs that as of December 2012 the printing services counters in 131 Queen St.—which houses the NDP OLO—and the Confederation Building will permanently close. The printing counter located in Centre Block will stay open. In an email to The Hill Times, Ms. Bradley said that full time employees who were working at these printing counters “will be deployed elsewhere,” and said part-time employees affected would see a “significant reduction in hours.”
Meanwhile, the BOIE also began announcing a number of funding changes last spring, shifting a variety of costs from the central House budget to MPs.
On May 18, the House administration was continuing to examine ways to achieve savings, the BOIE announced that the cost of language training for staff, and the spouses of MPs, will now be charged out of MPs’ office budgets and House officers’ budgets.
As a result of this change, the House central budget will be reduced by approximately $311,000 as MOBs will collectively absorb these expenditures.
At a Sept. 24 meeting of the Commons Board of Internal Economy, the committee agreed to changes in the employee vacation leave and payment system to put responsibility for oversight on MPs’ offices. Previously, employee vacation leave and pay in lieu of vacation were overseen by an automatic system run by the central House administration. The minutes were released last month in House.
In a scrum following Question Period on Dec. 11, Mr. O’Connor said “for years” there have been problems with staff taking their vacation leave, but also being paid in lieu of it.
“We aren’t going to pay people double, we’re not going to pay you and also take leave,” said Mr. O’Connor. “We found some instances of this and we just want to eliminate any possibility for the future.”
Effective Jan. 1, 2014, the House will no longer dole out automatic lump sum vacation payments of four per cent and six per cent paid in lieu of vacation to employees. Beginning that calendar year, the cost of and management of employee vacation and vacation pay will come under the oversight of the employees’ respective MPs’ offices or House officers’ budgets. This means the MPs’ offices will be responsible for tracking whether or not an employee takes their annual vacation leave (two weeks paid vacation for employees with less than six years employment; three weeks paid for those with six years or more under their belt) and for giving them pay in lieu of vacation if they don’t take it.
According to the board minutes, these changes—and the related anticipated reduction of instances of double paying staff—would “obviate the necessity” to reduce MOBs for the 2012-13 fiscal year. Mr. O’Connor said MOBs have instead been frozen.
“We’re saving money everywhere. We’re saving money on air flights, areas of administration, we’re changing printing organizations,” said Mr. O’Connor.
The Hill Times was unable to speak with either Mr. O’Connor or Ms. Turmel about these changes.
MPs across party lines had previously expressed concerns to The Hill Times over the BOIE’s plan to reduce MPs’ office budgets because they said it could impact their ability to serve constituents, particularly as government frontline services have also been cut back as part of reduction efforts. In an October interview with The Hill Times, Liberal MP Judy Sgro (York West, Ont.) said cuts to frontline services have increased the workload faced by MPs and said reducing MOBs would mean “we’ll have less of an opportunity to be able to service our constituents,” and suggested that instead MP salaries should stay frozen (salaries, which are $157,731 at base level, have been frozen since April 2009 and are set to unfreeze in 2013-14) and MOBs should be increased.
In other BOIE news, the most recently-tabled minutes—which were tabled on Dec. 10 and cover meeting minutes from May 28 to Oct. 15, 2012—reveal that BOIE members were given an opportunity to view a prototype of the new seating arrangement for the House of Commons Chamber.
With 30 new MPs set to enter the House of Commons after the next federal election in 2015, as a result of the new formula for calculating ridings each decennial review introduced with the Fair Representation Act, bringing the size of the House of Commons from 308 to 338, the House Chamber will have to find space for the 30 additional seats.
The temporary new seating arrangement is expected to add four new rows of seating; two on each side of the House. However, while the BOIE has approved the proposed seating plans, further approval is needed from other departments.
The new seating arrangement will be a temporary measure to accommodate a 338-member House of Commons until Centre Block goes under construction in 2019 as part of the multi-year, multi-billion dollar rehabilitation of the Parliamentary precinct. When Centre Block is under renovation, the House of Commons Chamber will move to an approximately $115-million glass-dome infill to be built in the West Block’s courtyard, as part of the buildings overall $863-million rehabilitation. The space will be used as the House Chamber until Centre Block’s renovation is done, at which point the infill will be used for additional committee rooms and office space.
Original Article
Source: hill times
Author: LAURA RYCKEWAERT
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