'Ten-percenters' scaled back

Liberal MP and Board of Internal Economy spokesman Marcel Proulx sends along this account of the board's decision on the future use of partisan "ten-percenter" mailouts.

("Ten-percenters" are the flyers MPs can send, at taxpayers' expense, to households outside of their constituencies. In recent months, they have been used more and more for aggressive partisan attacks, leading to calls for a cost-saving clampdown on their use.)

The Board met this morning and considered the matter of 10 percenters.

It agreed to return to the original intent of this service to Members, namely, the need to communicate with constituents.

The Board decided:

· That each Member would retain the current right to 4 householders per year for distribution in his/her constituency

· That each Member would return to the right to an unlimited number of 10 percenters for distribution in his/her constituency (the original definition of 10 percenter being retained: that is, a communication that goes to 10% of the households in the constituency; each of these communications being 50% different from one another)

The Board confirmed:

· That there would be no more regrouped 10 percenters (i.e. communications regrouped by party Whips once a month for distribution to targeted constituencies);

· That there would be no 10 percenter allowed for distribution outside of the constituency of the Member producing that communication.

It was also decided that there would be limits set on paper supplies chargeable to central budgets by each Member:

· A limit to envelopes equal to 3 X the number of households in his/her constituency

· A limit of 60,000 sheets of paper

Any supplies in excess are charged to the Member's MOB.

The Board also reconfirmed the prohibition against Members charging external printing services to their Member's Office Budget for large-volume printing.