As many as can fit in the cab, as long as they can all claim $30 without a receipt.
The stories may be apocryphal — or maybe not — but the days of the old gaggle of senators piling into a cab, then all individually claiming the $30 receipt-free cab allowance, is off the table.
The honour system for the honourable members is over because of the clear lack of honour being shown by some in the Red Chamber.
In fact, the first of 11 spending reforms, which Conservative senators characterize as “tough” is to remove the principle that a senator is presumed to act honourably when it comes to his or her expenses.
But when the hordes are at the door, pitchforks and torches in hand, demanding the place be shut, last week’s spending clampdown in the Senate received scant attention.
No one is suggesting this is enough, but since the Senate cannot be abolished overnight, it is at least a first step.
If the Senate doesn’t move to modernize and reform, it will die, acknowledges the government leader Marjory LeBreton.
“People don’t see this place as legitimate,” she says, “they see people taking advantage of a very privileged spot.’’
But really, all these changes do is highlight the laxity of the system in the first place.
How about specifying the type of “Senate business” one is on when claiming travel expenses? Until now, it was merely enough to call it “Senate business.” Nothing else.
Ottawa per diems will only be paid to senators in the capital on days when the Senate sits, they attend committee meetings or up to 20 other days of approved Senate business.
“It was never meant to be paid to someone who chose to stay in their condo in Ottawa over the summer,” LeBreton says.
There is now the radical notion of actually compiling mileage logs before claiming mileage.
There will be a limit of 12 flights that are not between Ottawa and the senators’ home province, and senators cannot use their point system for international flights except for United Nations business in New York or Washington.
LeBreton has also proposed that the Senate’s top 10 spenders each year automatically be subject to an audit, but she has had push back from her colleagues.
LeBreton, who is about to mark two decades in the Senate, likes to talk about its “institutional inertia,” but she has faced criticism for advocating modernization only now, in the midst of scandal, after seven years as government leader.
She argues she has had a majority for a much shorter period of time.
Other Senate sources say there have been well-known problems with expenditures and milking the system for ages, largely overlooked by financial officers who were hesitant to challenge the well-entrenched senators who they viewed as powerful and influential.
Those deemed “celebrities” such as Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin received even more deference.
Others said the Senate refused to police its own, pointing to internal economy stewards, Liberal George Furey under his party’s rule and Conservative David Tkachuk, under Conservative rule, who had received complaints but were too eager to “discuss and defer” instead of taking action.
In fact, last week, it emerged 25 of 49 Duffy expense claims were rejected, but still no red flags went up on the committee.
Tkachuk also told The Globe and Mail he wants to move a study of Pamela Wallin’s expenses back behind closed doors.
There are many who believe the rule changes are cosmetic.
The culture of the Senate has to be reshaped and it will not come about with a crackdown on archaic taxi receipt rules.
Right now, it is having a near-death experience, much beyond the contempt and ridicule it has endured in the past.
Certainly not all the men and women sitting in the chamber deserve the type of mockery and bile headed its way because of the arrogance and elitism of the few who have given their finger to the system and have chosen entitlements over honour.
The mood in the land is tilting to abolition, although it is not clear a majority are yet there, despite the constitutional difficulties of actually abolishing the chamber.
But if we ever get there, the end will have been engineered not just by Duffy, Wallin, Patrick Brazeau and Mac Harb. The blame also has to be place on their in-house enablers.
Original Article
Source: thestar.com
Author: Tim Harper
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