According to a financial report posted to the Elections Canada website, Adams’ campaign claimed $2,777.48 in personal expenses for the election period.
Elections Canada allows candidates to claim a maximum of $200 in “other” personal expenses, separate from items such as travel, living expenses, and child care expenses.
On Monday night, Adams took to Twitter to explain that of that amount, $1,857 went to child care, which candidates are allowed to claim.
Under the “personal expenses” tab of the financial report, all $2,777.48 was listed under “other,” while the amount next to “Child care” was $0.00.
During question period on Tuesday, Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett asked whether Adams broke Elections Canada rules. The Mississauga-Brampton South MP told the House that, “More than two-thirds of my personal expenses were for child care, as I campaigned from 7 a.m. until after 10 p.m. every day.
“While voters can tell you that my five-year-old son came to many doorsteps, he also had to eat and play and go to sleep at a reasonable hour. I had to keep campaigning.”
She added: “Elections Canada has very clear-cut rules and definitions of what can and cannot constitute a personal campaign expense. All campaigns including my campaign need to follow those definitions.”
Bennett and Adams were referring to a PostMedia News report that said Adams claimed hundreds of dollars in expenses for trips to nail and hair salons, as well as skincare and other personal hygiene products.
According to the report, expense claims included:
$424 at Davinci Salon and Spa
a $166 dry cleaning bill
$260 at Shoppers Drug Mart for items such as mouthwash and whitening toothpaste, cleanser and face cream, and hair brushes.
The report also noted that the expense filing included $1,857 paid to Margaret Artion whose address on the invoices is the same as a Brampton, Ont. hair salon. Adams said Artion looked after her young child during the campaign, and used the salon address because she was moving.
Many of Adams’s tweets Monday evening were directed at the Glen McGregor, the reporter who wrote the story published by PostMedia News Monday night.
“You've clearly never campaigned,” she tweeted to McGregor. “Toothpaste and mouthwash are for the dozens of volunteers who literally (sic) in campaign office.”
“We even bought soap for campaign office bathroom for people to wash their hands after 16+ hour days,” she said in another tweet. “Go figure!
As for the child care expense claim, Adams tweeted: “Please check your recorder Mr. McGregor. I did answer your question plainly. I told you she ONLY provided child care.”
CTV’s Mercedes Stephenson reported Tuesday that Elections Canada still has Adams’s campaign file open, meaning the federal agency has yet to approve her expense claims.
“So there are some questions about what exactly will be approved here,” Stephenson said.
Elections Canada rules stipulate that campaigns can be reimbursed, with taxpayer funds, for up to 60 per cent of eligible expenses.
On Tuesday, opposition MPs accused Conservative MPs of being “serial over-spenders.”
“This isn’t the opposition parties that are pushing this issue,” Liberal MP Rodger Cuzner told CTV’s Power Play. “This is Elections Canada two years later still trying to find out the facts and trying to get information back from this government.”
NDP MP Megan Leslie said Adams “is going to have to account for what she did or did not do and what she did or did not charge.
“But we have a Senate spending scandal. We have senators who can’t tell us what province they live in. There are way bigger issues here than whether or not she charged a blowdry to her campaign. I don’t think this should have been an issue for question period today.”
Last week it was revealed that Canada’s Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand had written to House Speaker Andrew Scheer advising that two other Conservative MPs be suspended over questionable election expenses.
Scheer was notified late last month that Mayrand found problems with returns from two Manitoba MPs -- Shelly Glover and James Bezan. In a letter to Scheer, Mayrand noted that both MPs had ignored repeated requests to make changes.
The Elections Act states that a sitting MP who fails to make a correction shall not continue to sit or vote as a member until the correction is made.
While opposition MPs have requested that the letter from Mayrand be tabled, Scheer said last week there isn’t a rule that indicates a letter to the Speaker is in fact a letter to the entire House of Commons.
“The chair is not aware of any precedent or practice that would suggest that letters to the Speaker, even letters from an Officer of Parliament, are de facto letters to the House as has been suggested,” Scheer said. “The chair does not know of any statutory or standing order authority that would lead to letters of this kind being tabled.”
Original Article
Source: ctvnews.ca
Author: CTVNews.ca Staff
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