The Secret Spending Club of MPs

Politicians ... they are all of the same ilk. Forthing at the mouth and at each other's throats in public and behind closed doors they are a circle of buddy-buddy fun and plotting to shaft us taxpayers without a care in the world.  If what this writer says is true, we have a sorry lot looking after our interests.

While ordinary Canadians are being forced to tighten their belts, federal MPs recently helped themselves to $5.1 million from the public purse — wait for it — for more political junk mail.

While they were at it, those elected to ensure the prudent expenditure of tax dollars stuffed another $2.7 million into their own travel budgets, and gave all their staff a raise.

Of course, no hogfest on the Hill would be complete without the Members of Porkville pigging out on another $3.2 million to fatten their already overbloated pensions.

If all this sounds like the makings of a taxpayer revolt, it darn well should be.
But don’t ask what the heck the politicians are thinking.

In the amazing republic of Canuckistan, the nation’s elected parliamentarians are still allowed to raid the treasury for their own creature comforts without any effective public scrutiny or transparency.

Instead, a small group of MPs from all four political parties periodically gathers in private with the Commons speaker to decide how to help themselves and fellow parliamentarians at taxpayers’ expense, all without a single word of public debate or justification.


They call themselves the Board of Internal Economy — not to be confused with doing anything the least bit economically — and are likely the deepest black hole of unaccountability in all of government.
Last fall, this secret society of MPs approved a 3.2% increase in this year’s Commons budget that will suck a whopping $440 million from taxpayers’ pockets.

Yet, the board’s meetings are always held behind closed doors, its books are off-limits to the auditor general, and its filing cabinets cannot be pried open by reporters requesting documents under the access to information laws that are supposed to ensure the public knows how its money is being wasted, er, spent.

For instance, two weeks after the board approved $5.1 million more for junk mail, the opposition parties voted to limit the program, but don’t ask what happens to the money.

We asked Liberal MP Marcel Proulx, the unlucky spokesman for the board, how any group of elected representatives could possibly justify locking the public out of deliberations involving taxpayers’ money.  “Oh, well, it’s always been like that, and there’s no intention of opening it.”...............