Newfoundland and Labrador Conservative Senator Elizabeth Marshall, chair of a special committee that has kept lines open to Mr. Ferguson since his office began its investigation of Senator expenses last year, told the Senate she will oppose the motion from Prince Edward Island Liberal Senator Percy Downe and argued it is up to the Commons to decide whether it wants its books under an audit inquiry.
Although Sen. Marshall spoke on her own behalf, addressing the Chamber after debate continued over Sen. Downe’s motion following the summer recess, her leadership position on a subcommittee of the Senate’s powerful Internal Economy Committee was a sign the government intends to defeat the motion and avoid a confrontation with the elected Commons.
Sen. Marshall argued that Sen. Down’s motion is too sweeping, and attempts to set conditions on how and when Mr. Ferguson’s office would conduct an audit, which Sen. Marshall said would infringe on the independence of the auditor general.
Despite a suggestion from Newfoundland and Labrador Liberal Senator George Baker that Sen. Down’s motion could be amended to eliminate the objectionable sentences, Sen. Marshall said she would oppose the motion regardless.
Liberal and Conservative Senators have privately taken shots at the Commons over its expense secrecy ever since a scandal exploded over expense claims by several former Conservative Senators and led to the Senate’s request for an audit last year—in large part as an attempt to control damage and recover from the public relations disaster of the expense scandal.
As the Senate squirmed increasingly under a microscope and came under attack in the Commons, individual Conservative and Liberal Senators alike tried to steer inquisitive journalists in the direction of the Commons.
The fiasco led Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) into a snap decision to eject the Liberal Senators from the national, without consulting Liberal Senators before announcing the measure publicly after a caucus meeting. The Senators continue to call themselves Liberals and are listed as such on the Parliament of Canada’s website.
Last March, Sen. Downe turned the backroom muttering into a formal Senate initiative, moving his motion proposing that the Senate call on Members of the House of Commons “to join the Senate in its efforts to increase transparency by acknowledging the longstanding request of current and former auditors general of Canada to examine the accounts of both Houses of Parliament, and thereby inviting the auditor general of Canada to conduct a comprehensive audit of House of Commons expenses, including Members’ expenses.”
Even though Mr. Ferguson announced his audit of Senate expenses in June 2013, the motion also said the two audits should be conducted at the same time and that the results should be released at the same time.
The Auditor General’s Office has in a general manner set the spring of 2015 as the expected date for releasing its audit of the Senate.
The audit covers expense spending and claims by current Senators and former Senators who were Senators between April 1, 2011, and March 31, 2013.
“When we invited the auditor general into the Senate to conduct a comprehensive audit, there was no direction given to him whatsoever as to how the audit would be conducted,” Sen. Marshall said as she argued against Sen. Downe’s motion.
“We simply invited him in and it was he who informed us that he was accepting our invitation, and then it was he who decided how the audit would be carried out and reported,” Sen. Marshall said during debate over Sen. Downe’s motion on Wednesday.
“This motion is more than an invitation because it invites the auditor general to conduct an audit, but it also continues on to direct the auditor general on how he should conduct that audit, which is concurrently, and it doesn’t stop there,” Senator Marshall said.
Sen. Marshall said in response to a question from Sen. Baker that she would oppose the motion even if the reference to a concurrent audit were removed.
“I wouldn’t support it then,” said Sen. Marshall. “I think the House of Commons has to decide.”
Sen. Marshall, once the auditor general for the government of Newfoundland and Labrador and also a former Conservative member of the province’s House of Assembly and a Cabinet minister, said MPs “should be the masters of their own ship.”
“One thing I would like to say, which I probably shouldn’t say but will, is that, once the Senate audit is complete, I think that all eyes will turn toward the House of Commons. I think that they themselves should be masters of their own ship. I have utmost confidence that they will take command and do the right thing.”
Former Conservative Senators Mike Duffy and Patrick Brazeau have been charged with criminal offences over their expense claims and spending, and former Conservative Senator Pam Wallin remains under investigation. Former Liberal Senator Mac Harb has also been charged, over claims he made for a secondary residence in the Ottawa Valley.
Original Article
Source: hilltimes.com/
Author: Tim Naumetz
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