Inside Politics

7 previously-secret spending decisions by the House budget committee

by Kady O'Malley Posted: December 11, 2012 4:00 PM Last Updated: December 11, 2012 4:26 PM
Courtesy of the just-released May-through-October minutes of the Board of Internal Economy, the closed-door all-party committee that governs House of Commons spending and administration: 


        • MPs got the green light to expense "supplementary business liability insurance" for staffers' personal vehicles to their office budgets, and bill accommodation costs for spouses and/or dependents visiting Ottawa to the main House travel expense account "under specific conditions."

        • As a cost-cutting measure, the Board decided that staffers be granted vacation leave in lieu of "automatic lump sum vacation payments," which will "obviate the necessity" of further cuts to MPs' budgets in 2012-2013.

        • A (previously little known) "annual accommodation allowance" paid to the Speaker and Deputy Speaker was cancelled as December 31, 2012

        • The board agreed to allocate up to $262,500 for the 2014 Parliamentary Assembly of the Francophonie in Ottawa, and up to $199,716 for the 11th Conference of Parliamentarians of the Arctic Region, which will take place in Yellowknife or Whitehorse in October 2014

        • The board also approved the payment of legal fees in two separate, yet unspecified cases, albeit in one instance, that would be "subject to the matter being resolved in the members' favour," but sought additional information on legal fees related to a Member "involved in a legal action in defamation."

        • On the other hand, the board rejected a request from an unnamed MP for an exemption from the by-law against hiring members of their immediate family, and also turned down a request for an exception from the rule requiring authorization for advertising expenses, as the expense in question "constituted a donation to non-profit organizations."

        • Finally, in what was, perhaps, the most intriguing, if opaque entry in the minutes,"findings regarding the alleged misuse of ten percenters" were "discussed," although what decisions, if any, resulted from that discussion didn't make it onto the official record. ("Ten percenters" is Commons shorthand for the program that allows MPs to send out leaflets outside their riding -- up to a total of ten percent of the population of their constituency.) 

Read the complete minutes here: Minutes of the Board of Internal Economy - Procès-verbaux du Bureau de régie interne

Tags: blackberry jungle, board of internal economy, house of commons