Sen. Wallin, whose appearance in Moose Jaw created a controversy in the province because her visit involved a fundraiser for Mr. Boughen, invoiced no other Saskatchewan MPs for travel expenses, according to Elections Canada records, even though she told The Leader-Posta day later that the visit took place as she was “in Saskatchewan supporting our MPs who are seeking re-election.”
More than $375,000 of Sen. Wallin’s Senate expenses are undergoing a forensic examination by accounting firm Deloitte, following Deloitte forensic reports on expenses by three other Senators, including Prince Edward Island Sen. Mike Duffy.
Sen. Duffy also campaigned for Conservative candidates in the 2011 general election, and in at least two cases either did not invoice the candidates for travel expenses while campaigning on their behalf, as required under the Canada Elections Act, or failed to submit invoices in order to have the expenses attributed to the campaigns and reported to Elections Canada.
In one of the cases, while campaigning for Western Arctic Conservative candidate Sandy Lee, now a regional office director for Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq (Nunavut), Sen. Duffy said, in an invoice of only $209 to Ms. Lee’s campaign, that the Conservative Party of Canada was paying for his travel costs to Yellowknife, N.W.T., as well as his hotel bills.
Sen. Duffy invoiced Ms. Lee for the $209 to cover two taxi rides and an airport car parking charge on May 1, the day before the federal election, and Ms. Lee reported campaign expenses that were only $759 under her Elections Canada limit.
The Canada Elections Act and Elections Canada handbooks for candidates and political parties stipulates that a political party must pay travel expenses for senators or MPs when they campaign for the party, but when senators or MPs campaign for individual candidates the expenses must be attributed to and paid by the candidate campaigns.
Sen. Wallin and Sen. Duffy have been forced to resign from the Conservative caucus because of the Senate expense controversy, including a Commons storm that has been raging for two weeks over a $90,172 personal cheque Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) former chief of staff gave to Sen. Duffy enabling Sen. Duffy to repay his impugned expenses and avoid questioning by Deloitte. Former chief of staff Nigel Wright, a fundraiser for the Conservative Party, resigned on May 19.
The Toronto Star reported last Sunday that a third Conservative Senator, B.C. Senator Nancy Green Raine, also campaigned for several Conservative candidates during the 2011 election, but only invoiced one of the candidates for expenses, a $392 flight ticket, while campaigning for Conservative MP and former aboriginal affairs minister John Duncan (Vancouver Island North, B.C.)
Sen. Nancy Green Raine explained to Toronto Star reporter Joanna Smith: “You know what it’s like in these campaigns. They’re always short of funding, so you’re staying in people’s houses and eating at Tim Hortons and just going from A to B.”
Correspondence included in Mr. Boughen’s campaign reveals that at least in his case, the campaign attempted to increase the amount of Sen. Wallin’s invoice, by asking her to include the cost of a bouquet of flowers it sent to her Moose Jaw hotel room.
“I will have Adrian contact Pamela so that we receive and invoice asap,” an email from Sandy Boughen to a campaign assistant says. “Also, we bought her flowers for her hotel room so we could use that expense if necessary. It was about $52.00.”
The email was in response to another email to Sandy Boughen from an assistant to Mr. Boughen’s official agent who said the campaign “needed to lose money” on the fundraiser Sen. Wallin spoke to or it would have to issue election contribution donation receipts. But the campaign had not kept track of the names of those who attended, and would have been unable to issue receipts.
Sen. Wallin billed the campaign $96.31 for her hotel room, $166.06 cents at $83.03 a day for her rental car, and $85.57 for a per diem.
Mr. Boughen’s expense return to Elections Canada shows that Sen. Wallin rented the Budget car from April 13 to April 22 and paid $830.26 for the rental.
When Sen. Duffy campaigned for four Nova Scotia Conservative candidates and two New Brunswick Conservative candidates at about the same time period that April on the East Coast, he billed each of them $53.33 for a share of his car rental.
The invoice to Mr. Boughen’s campaign is the only record at Elections Canada of candidate campaign expenses charged by Sen. Wallin during the election.
Conservative MP Scott Armstrong (Cumberland-Colchester-Musquodobit Valley, N.S.) told The Hill Times that Sen. Duffy appeared as part of a “secondary tour” that had been organized by the Conservative Party national campaign headquarters.
Sen. Wallin did not return a call on Wednesday after The Hill Times left a message at the Ottawa cellphone number she had recorded on her Budget rental car bill. Sen. Wallin’s Hill office told The Hill Times that she would not comment until the Deloitte audit is finished.
Sen. Wallin listed Wadena as her residence on the Budget rental form, but put her condominium address in Toronto as the return address for her invoice to Mr. Boughen’s campaign.
Sen. Greene Raine did not return a telephone call on Wednesday.
Original Article
Source: hilltimes.com
Author: TIM NAUMETZ
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