A copy of the rules that the Senate provided The Hill Timesalso calls for any Senator who claims secondary residence expenses in the National Capital Region must include “required documentation” while filing the annual residence declaration. But the rules are unclear whether the information must include documented evidence about the primary residence.
Sen. Duffy has since said he has decided to reimburse the Senate for secondary residence expenses for his Ottawa home that he has received since his appointment to the Senate on Jan. 2, 2009, and, in the midst of a Senate committee inquiry into his expenses and the expenses of at least four other senators who have claimed secondary residence expenses for Ottawa, he told The Hill Timeshe was no longer speaking publicly about the affair.
“I am not doing any media at this time,” Sen. Duffy said in an email from inside the Senate Chamber.
Last week, Sen. Duffy said he will repay thousands of dollars in housing allowances, and acknowledged he may have made mistakes in claiming his primary residence as being in Prince Edward Island. “To put all this behind us, we are going to voluntarily pay back my living expenses,” Sen. Duffy said to the CBC on Feb. 22. “Until the rules are cleared, and they’re not clear now … I will not claim a housing allowance.”
Sen. Duffy has claimed more than $33,000 over the last three years.
NDP MP Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay, Ont.) told The Hill Timesthat he was surprised, considering the Senator’s earlier statements about confusion over the residency form, that it actually must be submitted to the Senate administration every year to qualify for secondary residency and travel status expenses in the National Capital Region.
The form is only one page, and gives Senators the option of checking off one of two boxes at the top of the form. One box is beside a sentence that declares “My primary residence is within 100 kilometres from Parliament Hill.”
Another box is beside a second sentence that says: “My primary residence is more than 100 kilometres from Parliament Hill.”
The second half of the one-page form outlines how a Senator may claim even year-round expenses for a secondary residency the Senator owns in the National Capital Region, as long as the residence is available for the Senator’s occupancy and is not rented to another person or claimed as an expense by another senator. The Senator must also provide proof of ownership on a yearly basis.
The form also on its bottom half explains how and Senator may claim expenses for a secondary residence that he or she leases or rents in Ottawa, providing proof of payment and a copy of the lease, with a restriction that the person leasing the property is not a family member and providing the lease will not further the Senator’s private interest or those of his family.
After avoiding direct answers about the residency controversy for several months, Sen. Duffy said last week he and his family had decided to end the furor by repaying his Ottawa residency expenses.
“Rather than let this issue drag on, my wife and I have decided that the allowance associated with my house in Ottawa will be repaid,” the 66-year-old Senator said in a statement last Friday.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.), who appeared to provide a more subdued response to questions in the House of Commons on Tuesday, told MPs on Thursday that all Senators are in compliance with residency and expense requirements.
“All Senators conform to the residency requirements, that is the basis on which they are appointed to the Senate and those requirements have been clear for 150 years,” the Prime Minister said.
Conservative Senator Pamela Wallin, Conservative Senator Dennis Patterson, Liberal Senator Mac Harb, and Independent Senator Patrick Brazeau and two other Senators are also in the spotlight over their living allowance expense and residency claims.
Original Article
Source: hilltimes.com
Author: Tim Naumetz
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