St. Albert Member of Parliament Brent Rathgeber will be putting his receipts online for taxpayers’ perusal as part of his efforts to be transparent.
“I believe that transparency and openness creates trust and creates confidence and opaqueness leads to mistrust or at least suspicion,” said the member for St. Albert-Edmonton.
Rathgeber’s constituency expenses for the April 1,2012-March 31, 2013 fiscal year were recently released. He spent $367,080.58 on items like travel to Ottawa, lodging, hospitality, office rental and other expenses. That’s enough to put him as the fourth least-spending MP from Alberta – or the top, if one discounts the two MPs that each only served part of the year, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who gets lodges at 24 Sussex Drive and a transportation budget that’s largely run through other expense channels.
“I like to think I am at the top for Alberta,” Rathgeber said. In a list ranking the MPs from least amount spent to most, Rathgeber was 75th, noting his travel and lodging expenses are more than those MPs who live in the Ottawa area.
“I can’t possibly compete with people who live in Ontario, Quebec and even the Maritimes,” he said. The expenditures report show he spent a total of $70,814.69 for the year on travel for himself, $8,471.54 for his designated traveler and $2,249.84 for employee travel. Rathgeber said when he can, he flies WestJet, which is often cheaper than Air Canada, and buys packs of 10 east-west connector passes from Air Canada, which is less than buying tickets individually.
Rathgeber said another way he saves when compared to his colleagues in Parliament is to live in a more humble apartment than he’s seen other MPs do, living a bit further away from Parliament Hill and paying about $1,000 a month in rent.
“I by far have the most modest living arrangements,” he said.
“I try and treat taxpayers dollars respectfully,” he said, adding expenses were down from the previous fiscal year. The 2011-2012 fiscal year total for Rathgeber’s expenditures was $406,992.54.
Rathgeber did note they saved some on rent for the 2012-2013 fiscal year because his Edmonton constituency office was open by appointment only and they are planning on increasing his presence there, so that cost could go up.
However, interested electors who would like to see how Rathgeber spends his money will be able to view receipts and totals on his website for expenses incurred as of Oct. 1.
“We’re going to scan receipts in real time before they get submitted for reimbursement. We’re going to post receipts monthly and itemize them quarterly and annually,” Rathgeber said. That’s going a step beyond some of the handful of MPs who put their expenses online – some give totals, while others scan receipts, but Rathgeber will be doing both.
“I hope to be not only the lowest spending MP in Alberta, I hope to be the most transparent,” Rathgeber said. He expects he’ll take some flak from voters on some expenses, but would rather defend spending on items like prizes for an essay contest than not tell taxpayers how he’s spending their money.
“I think at the end of the day it’s easier to defend that than the refusal to disclose,” he said.
The plan is to encourage other MPs to do the same, with the hope that eventually if enough people in both the House of Commons and the Senate are already doing it, it might become law. That way, someone can double check the numbers.
“The problem is with what I’m doing is it’s completely voluntary,” Rathgeber said. “In the absence of mandatory disclosure, in the absence of access to information laws being made to apply to the Parliament of Canada, this is the best I can do. I’m going to do it, I’m going to encourage other members to do it,” he said.
He did note Justin Trudeau recently announced the federal Liberal caucus members would start disclosing their expenses as well as the MPs and senators who are already doing so. He noted since the Senate expense scandal there has been more pressure for disclosure.
“I would prefer quite frankly if this was mandatory and applied to members of both houses,” Rathgeber said.
