Senator Jacques Demers speaks to media following Caucus on Parliament Hill Tuesday May 21, 2013 in Ottawa.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Politics Insider delivers premium analysis and access to Canada's policymakers and politicians. Visit the Politics Insider homepage for insight available only to subscribers.
Senators are expected to debate a new set of rules for members' expense claims this week, as the Conservative government works to contain the damage created by a growing scandal in the Red Chamber.
The proposed changes were presented by the Senate's internal economy committee on May 9 – the same day that audits and reports for three senators' housing expense claims were tabled in the Red Chamber. Speaking to the Conservative caucus on Tuesday, Mr. Harper said he wants to see the new standards adopted as soon as possible. "Get that done," he said.
The new rules aim to address some significant gaps in the Senate's rules by eliminating wording that presumes senators will act responsibly, requiring better documentation for expenses and curbing travel beyond members' provincial residences and the National Capital Region. But it's unclear if they will deal with some of the more fundamental problems with the way the Senate runs its business.
Perhaps the most fundamental change proposed by the committee would eliminate a clause in the Senate's administrative rules that assumes members are acting honourably "unless and until the Senate or the internal economy committee determines otherwise."
Senator Mike Duffy was able to collect per diems while he was in Florida on vacation because administrators assumed he was claiming them correctly and did not require documentation to back them up. (Mr. Duffy told auditors the claims were filed in error and blamed the oversight on a temporary assistant). Media reports last week suggest Mr. Duffy may have made similar claims while campaigning for Conservative candidates before the last federal election.
Another new rule would target Mr. Duffy's per diem claims directly: it would limit senators to claiming daily meal expenses to days the Senate sits, days a senator is in committee or caucus meetings, and up to 20 days when they are working on Senate-related business. However, there would still be no requirement that senators prove they are working on Senate business during those 20 days, which suggests members could still claim a per diem on days they aren't working for the Senate – just on fewer days.
They would also significantly curb a senator's ability to charge for travel to locations that do not include their home province and Ottawa. Trips to New York would be limited to UN-related business and no international travel would be allowed beyond Washington and New York.
Senator Pamela Wallin charged hundreds of thousands of dollars in travel expenses over the past two years, with most of the money spent on what the Senate calls "other travel." She said earlier this year that many of her trips home involve stop-overs and therefore do not appear to be trips between Ottawa and Saskatchewan, the province she represents in the Senate. Ms. Wallin resigned from the Conservative caucus last week as auditors continue to analyze her travel claims.
There are also a series of more specific tweaks to the way senators' travel expenses are handled. Under the new rules, senators would have to produce receipts for all taxi rides, maintain a road travel log for mileage claims, and give a specific purpose for each trip they are seeking reimbursement for.
Still, none of the proposed changes can address one of the most basic issues the expense controversy has raised. The Constitution says that senators must be resident in the province or region they were appointed to represent, but does not define what that means. Mr. Duffy is just one of a number of senators who appear to live primarily in Ottawa while representing another province or region – an issue the Senate's leadership has shown no interest in addressing further.
Kim Mackrael is a parliamentary reporter in Ottawa.