In a statement, Kate Purchase, a spokeswoman for the prime minister, said the government has had a relocation policy for public servants and ministerial staff since the 1970s.
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Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion’s chief of staff, Julian Ovens, is in the process of reimbursing $32,130 of the $119,825 he claimed for moving expenses.
Elder Marques, chief of staff to Bains, received $103,997 for expenses related to his move from Toronto to Ottawa.
Although Telford and Butts said they wouldn’t ask any other political staffers to follow their lead, Ovens and Marques evidently felt they had little choice.
Butts will also reimburse land transfer costs, which is listed at $25,141. Ms. Telford said she will pay back $23,373 for the personalized cash payout.
He says even if the government was moving a staffer from Iqaluit by dog sled, there is no way more than $126,500 in expenses could be incurred to move a single person to Ottawa.
In their statement Thursday, Butts and Telford said that land transfer taxes on the purchase of his Ottawa home were among the costs he plans to repay. In total, his move from Saskatoon to Ottawa cost almost $120,000.
Records show Telford sold her house in April for just over $1 million, almost twice what she and her husband paid in 2008.
Telford’s breakdown doesn’t include land transfer taxes because she is renting accommodation in Ottawa rather than purchasing.
Friday marked the fourth day in a row that the issue dominated the Conservative attack in Question Period. “Does the Prime Minister commit to telling us and telling Canadians who received these ambiguous cash payments and will they be paid back to the taxpayer?”
Tory House leader Candice Bergen said the reimbursement is an admission by the Liberals “that they have been using the taxpayer as their personal ATM”.
“When we reviewed these costs, we decided that the amount called ‘personalized cash payout, ‘ which is for miscellaneous moving expenses, is unreasonable”, they said.
The Privy Council Office released figures that show 18 Tory staffers in prime minister Stephen Harper’s office claimed $324,800 over nine years.
Documents tabled in the House of Commons say It cost the government $113,799 to move one of the two political staffers in Bains office, based on the estimates provided by a relocation service hired by the government.
How much help political staff get with relocation costs is at the discretion of each minister; eligible expenses include shipping vehicles and household effects, temporary accommodations, meals, house-hunting expenses, legal and real estate fees and costs related to quitting an existing job.
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Moving the second staffer cost an estimated $37,171.
