Tory Minister Racks Up $150,000

[Michael Bluth]

Meh. I retract my call for Blackburn's resignation.

Minister Blackburn appreciates your support.

[jdobbin]

Didn't realise the money didn't come from their budgets... it was easily found where the budget dollars were. Meh. I retract my call for Blackburn's resignation.

Yes, cleverly hidden so that it has be dug out like a gold filling.

[geoffrey]

Yes, cleverly hidden so that it has be dug out like a gold filling.

God forbid a journalist actually has to do something more than attend press conferences in this country.

[capricorn]

Afghanistan is the albatross around Harper's neck. Whatever the CPC does on this file will not earn them any points anytime soon. Everything else the CPC does, and I mean everything, has to stand up to scrutiny. That includes disclosing ministerial expenses, whatever they may be. Question is: How long will it take them to learn this lesson?

[jdobbin]

God forbid a journalist actually has to do something more than attend press conferences in this country.

God forbid that a politician like Harper would make good on a promise of transparency. Most of those flights lacked any detail as to make them near impossible to track down to anyone in government.

[geoffrey]

God forbid that a politician like Harper would make good on a promise of transparency. Most of those flights lacked any detail as to make them near impossible to track down to anyone in government.

Apparently some journalist got off their ass and tracked down something though, so I'd hardly say impossible.

[jdobbin]

Apparently some journalist got off their ass and tracked down something though, so I'd hardly say impossible.

Not impossible but I question why expenses are spread out like this when the election promise was to have one stop accounting for finding out how money was spent and where. The department website promises that all expenses are listed for a minister in one area but that really isn't true.

[geoffrey]

Not impossible but I question why expenses are spread out like this when the election promise was to have one stop accounting for finding out how money was spent and where. The department website promises that all expenses are listed for a minister in one area but that really isn't true.

To be honest, I have no idea how the Federal government tracks costs (interesting, that aspect of accounting is rarely audited to any great extent in -most- private industry). I can see a bazillion ways that cost accounting can be done, and I remind you changing the cost accounting system of the Federal government is not an overnight task, not even a decade long task, and many of those ways would have costs allocated like this.

Blackburn can't change the entire system overnight, no one can, not even my personal hero Ms. Fraser. For all we know, he followed less than ideal rules to the T.

It's a big issue that none of us know anything about. These things can EASILY happen without any intent to mislead.

One thing is very clear to me from all this though, and that is if the information isn't working for the stakeholders (us, being the taxpayers mostly), then they definitely have to look at how things are being done in Ottawa. We'll see changes, I wouldn't hold my breath though!

[Cameron]

After reading this article this is what I get out of it.

Take a business man. He goes to buy something at a store for work. Let's say a blackberry. He has a purchase order from the company that covers the cost of the phone, but he decides to get a car charger for it. So he pays for that out of pocket and submits a receipt for $50 for the charger.

Now in total he spend $550 for the phone and the charger, but since the phone was covered under the PO (because his company has allocated money for it) it wouldn't show up under his personal expense report and only the $50 for the charger would apply to him.

It looks as though if he is on departmental work the cost for the flights would show up when the department submited their report at the end of their fiscal year. For his personal expenses he may not need to declare the cost of the flight as it would already be listed through the department.

That is my take on it.

Cam

[jdobbin]

It looks as though if he is on departmental work the cost for the flights would show up when the department submited their report at the end of their fiscal year. For his personal expenses he may not need to declare the cost of the flight as it would already be listed through the department.

Would that be your take if this was a Liberal minister?

[Cameron]

It looks as though if he is on departmental work the cost for the flights would show up when the department submited their report at the end of their fiscal year. For his personal expenses he may not need to declare the cost of the flight as it would already be listed through the department.

Would that be your take if this was a Liberal minister?

Yes, I try look at matters such as this objectively.

[jdobbin]

Yes, I try look at matters such as this objectively.

Good. Because I expect that any minister from any party will ensure that all their expenses are available to look at in one place as the Accountability Act intended.

[jdobbin]

More on the Blackburn story. It seems he spent more that the previous Liberal minister.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/stor...14?hub=Politics

Saada's 2005 expense reports fire a pair of missiles into last week's Tory defence of Blackburn.

"The fact is, the expenses of the Conservative labour minister during 2006 were less than the comparable expenses for the Liberal minister during 2005,'' Peter Van Loan, the Conservative House leader, told the Commons last Monday after an Access to Information request by the NDP turned up Blackburn's hidden air travel.

True -- but only if you don't count the $150,000 in unreported air travel.

Blackburn followed up with a letter to newspaper editors that claimed "allegations of hidden travel costs are false.''

"In my time as minister,'' Blackburn wrote, "I rejected my Liberal predecessor's practice of not disclosing chartered flights costing less than $10,000. At my request, these, too, are notified in proactive disclosure.''

In fact, Saada counted as air fare the fees for all 17 of his charter flights, ranging in cost from as little as $1,272 to as much as $11,342.

Blackburn, by contrast, listed air fare as zero even on those charter trips that he chose to "proactively disclose'' -- including one single charter that cost $41,822. He took some 25 charter flights in all last year, and only eight are referenced in his expenses.

It is true that air charter contracts, including contracts worth less than $10,000, are disclosed on the department website. But those contracts do not list who was onboard the aircraft, or where it flew, making the disclosure virtually meaningless.

Only by obtaining actual flight logs through an Access to Information request was the NDP able to reveal Blackburn's travel habits.

For a Conservative government that preaches accountability, thin Tory expense reports raise interesting questions, said New Democrat MP Pat Martin.

[geoffrey]

Inflation.

Why is he using Charter flights? Can he not dial 1-800-AIRCANADA or what not?

I have little issue with Ministers flying first class or eating at nice resturants, I have a big issue with them wasting that sum of money. $41k for a flight. Nah. That's 205 $200 seats. I doubt there were 205 on the plane... maybe 25. They could have flown first class for $2000 each.

[Who's Doing What?]

$41,000 for one chartered flight?

WTF did they rent, a flying version of a penthouse suite?

There had better not be a seperate bill for dinner at that price.

[cybercoma]

The problem is that Stephen Harper's government promised to be transparent and they're not doing that.

Of course, it's kinda difficult to shoot yourself in the foot by being transparent when the government's before you weren't. This government's actions have to be held up to the last government's actions for comparison sake, at the very least. The problem is if this government is completely transparent, everyone is going to question every dime spent and nothing is going to get accomplished, without even realizing that the previous governments had spent just as much if not more than this one.

[jdobbin]

The problem is that Stephen Harper's government promised to be transparent and they're not doing that.

Of course, it's kinda difficult to shoot yourself in the foot by being transparent when the government's before you weren't. This government's actions have to be held up to the last government's actions for comparison sake, at the very least. The problem is if this government is completely transparent, everyone is going to question every dime spent and nothing is going to get accomplished, without even realizing that the previous governments had spent just as much if not more than this one.

So the answer is to hide things?

Here are a few simple rules: Report all spending and be prepared to justify it. Some people will begrudge every penny. Most people will recognize that if you are the minister of Northern Affairs that you probably have to go north and yes, you you might have to charter a plane. What they don't like is hiding that fact and then claiming that you are spending less the who came before you.