Saskatchewan senators asked if they live in the province
CBC News
Posted: Feb 6, 2013 4:33 PM CST
Last Updated: Feb 7, 2013 9:20 AM CST
Senators can only claim living expenses in Ottawa if they have a primary residence somewhere else. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld)
Related
Related Stories
External Links
(Note:CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external links.)
An internal audit is underway to determine whether Canadian Senators are really living where they say they're living.
Saskatchewan Senator David Tkachuk is heading up the audit. Tkachuk asked each senator to prove where they live to determine whether they are entitled to claim living expenses in Ottawa.
The questions started after Mike Duffy and other senators were accused of not living outside of Ottawa but were still collecting extra money for living expenses. Senators can only claim living expenses if they have a primary residence somewhere else.
Tkachuk is looking for proof that senators pay taxes, have a home, health card, and a driver's licence issued in their home province.
"Hopefully a senator meets all or some of these qualifications and has a residency in their home province," Tkachuk said.
Six people currently represent Saskatchewan on the Senate. CBC reached out to all of them and five out of six have said they maintain a primary residence in Saskatchewan.
Tkachuk said he flies home to Saskatoon every week and pays income tax in Saskatchewan.
Raynelle Andreychuk and Denise Batters said they own homes and pay taxes in Saskatchewan.
Lillian Dyck said she owns and lives in a Saskatoon house.
Pana Merchant said she's lived in the same Regina home for 42 years and has never had a different health card or driver's licence.
Pamela Wallin is the only Saskatchewan senator who did not immediately respond to CBC's written requests, although she spoke briefly to a reporter in Ottawa on Wednesday.
According to Senate expense reports, Wallin claimed more than $15,000 in Ottawa living expenses last year.
If Wallin does live in Saskatchewan, she is allowed to claim up to $20,000 a year for an Ottawa residence. Her travel records indicate Wallin spent more than $20,000 traveling to and from Saskatchewan last year.
Tkachuk is expected to make his audit public by the end of February.
Share Tools
Latest Saskatchewan News Headlines
- Wallin refuses to answer questions about repaying expenses
- Speaking as an independent Saskatchewan senator for the first time, Pamela Wallin is not answering any questions about whether or not she has repaid expense money. more »
- Gordon Barnhart critical of Senate expense claims he saw as clerk
- A former clerk of the Senate, Gordon Barnhart, gives a harsh assessment of how senators handled expense claims based on what he experienced. more »
- Winterhawks down Blades to clinch Memorial Cup semifinal berth
- The Portland Winterhawks scored three times in the third period Wednesday to defeat the Blades 4-2 in the final round-robin game at the MasterCard Memorial Cup in Saskatoon. more »
- End solitary confinement, says former female inmate
- A Saskatchewan woman who was held in solitary confinement in B.C. for a total of 3½ years has issued an emotional plea to end the practice in Canada's prisons. more »
Must Watch
Top News Headlines
- Court freezes assets in widening SNC-Lavalin probe
- The RCMP are moving to freeze millions of dollars in bank accounts and real estate holdings in Montreal and Florida in their expanding probe into Canadian engineering firm SNC-Lavalin. more »
- Neil Macdonald: Harper no Obama when it comes to dealing with scandals
- Beset by three so-called scandals at the moment, Barack Obama has been meeting his accusers and the press head on, Neil Macdonald writes. The same cannot be said for how Stephen Harper operates. more »
- U.K. emergency committee meets after London attack
- WARNING: This story contains graphic content. The British government's emergency committee is going to meet after two attackers butchered a man in a brutal daylight attack in London that officials say had signs of being motivated by radical Islam. more »
- Needed: New approaches to defuse 'suicide contagion' among teens
- Mental health experts say we need to find new ways to refer to and discuss suicide, particularly now that a large medical study has confirmed that teens are more susceptible to the idea if they know a schoolmate who died that way. more »
- Gordon Barnhart critical of Senate expense claims he saw as clerk
- Wallin refuses to answer questions about repaying expenses
- Delayed sentencing of chief frustrates some
- Regina OK's Albert Street nightclub
- Fire destroys only bar in Lafleche, Sask.
- Transgender bride files human rights complaint
- RCMP seek suspect accused of assault on teen
- End solitary confinement, says former female inmate
- Controversy swirls around chief who sexually assaulted teen

