As Progressive Conservatives MPPs face a wave of backlash over hotel room expenses, the Ford government is now looking to eliminate a category that allows elected officials to bill taxpayers for overnight stays under “special circumstances.”
Global News was first to report on the hotel room expenses incurred by members of the Progressive Conservative government who live within driving distance of Queen’s Park.
All of the MPPs submitted the expenses under a “special circumstance” designation normally reserved for emergencies.
Tourism Minister Stan Cho, who lives less than six kilometres away from Queen’s Park, was scrutinized after billing taxpayers for more than $16,000 in Toronto hotel room stays.
On Wednesday, the Ontario NDP revealed that 20 PC MPPs charged taxpayers a total of $120,000 over the course of several years to stay in downtown Toronto hotel rooms, despite living within 50 kilometres of the Ontario Legislature.
That included a trio of Peel Region MPPs who billed the taxpayer some $50,000 for hotel stays over the past two years. Hardeep Grewal, the parliamentary assistant to the minister of transportation, charged almost $20,000 himself.
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The government has said expenses that don’t meet the “intent” of the special accommodation policy will be repaid — but pointed out the Legislative Assembly of Ontario is responsible for approving the requests.
Those expense categories are controlled by the Board of Internal Economy — a legislative body comprised of members from all official parties, along with the Speaker, that oversees the financial affairs at Queen’s Park
In an attempt to diffuse the growing scandal, the Ford government announced it would look to change the rules that govern provincial MPPs by removing the “special category” designation.
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In a letter to members of the board, Government House Leader Steve Clark said he would look to scrap the policy altogether.
“Today, I will bring a motion to the opposition members of the committee outlining my intent to eliminate this expense category,” Clark wrote in the letter.
“If no agreement is reached today, I will table this matter at the next meeting of the Board of Internal Economy.”
NDP Leader Marit Stiles said she would support the measure, but said the government members need to come clean about the expenses.
“Show us the receipts, let’s see them,” Stiles said, calling on the government to show a full accounting of the hotel bills along with proof of repayment.
“The problem wasn’t the rule. The problem was that you were abusing the rule and they know it.”
Erin, you are full of it. Your son the firefighter is very well paid and he has premium benefits and a bulletproof pension. They are so well paid that there is a waiting list for firefighter jobs in Toronto. People making half your son’s income can afford to live in Toronto. Your son chooses to live 2 hours away because that long shift you mentioned means they only have to come into the city 5 days over a 2 week period. They want large homes, and they want few neighbours, and many don’t want to live next to Torontonians while collecting salaries from those same people’s taxes.
In fact, so many of Toronto firefighters choose, yes choose, to live so far away, that they live in towns where there is no fulltime firefighter force of their own. These guys wanted to volunteer there and use their benefits from Toronto to cover any injuries occurred while volunteering in their bedroom communities hours from Toronto. The association of firefighter chiefs had to push back at this attempt over benefits, and thankfully it never saw the light of day.
We all personally know firefighters. And we all know how they brag about the perks of their jobs.
Thank you, Global, for uncovering and reporting this!
Colin, do you have these expenses for all political parties or just the PCs?
While this is an absolute disgusting abuse of power, not to mention use of taxpayers money, it is not really surprising that it happened at all. So many politicians feel entitled to these perks. I look at my son, who is a fire-fighter for Toronto Fire Service, but lives over 2 hours away in order to afford a decent home and drives in and out for his long 24 hour shifts that for him, at least, does not allow for any sleeping time (to forestall any comments in that regard). I wonder if he could start claiming “special circumstances” after working all night fighting fires or rescuing people and stay at a hotel to catch some sleep in order to drive home safely. At least he would have earned it. ALL MPPs (and any politicians serving at their constituents’ behest) need to be held accountable and be expected to be completely transparent with their “expense accounts” and use of any other “discretionary” monies provided by the tax payer.
He used it to cheat on his wife. Clearly
So, now that they got caught wasting taxpayers dollars, again, now they want to make supposed changes to appease voters hoping to prevent the backlash. Too late, your government has been wasting billions for the last close to 7 years, and we the taxpayers are pretty ticked off about it. So much so, don’t count on winning the next election. We can’t wait to boot your backsides out the door.
His mpp were living the high life on the backs of taxpayers. Party of fiscal responsibility everyone.