“The Liberals are trying to turn the tables on Conservatives who’ve had a heyday with excessive moving expenses claimed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s two top aides.They revealed Friday that former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper’s office paid out nearly $325,000 in relocation expenses for 29 staffers — including a single move for one individual that came in at just over $93,000.
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The tit-for-tat ploy came a day after Trudeau’s chief of staff, Katie Telford, and principal secretary, Gerald Butts, apologized for claiming $80,382 and $126,669 respectively in expenses incurred moving to Ottawa from Toronto.
“The Prime Minister personally signed off on $220,000 in moving expenses for his own political staff”, Alberta Conservative MP Blaine Calkins said.
In a statement on Facebook, Mr. Butts and Ms. Telford released the full breakdown of their moving expenses and said they will reimburse “unreasonable” expenses they deemed too high.
They say they followed the policy that’s been in place for decades but say Trudeau has asked Treasury Board to create a new policy to govern relocation expenses across the whole of government.
The pair were entitled to over $200,000 moving expenses total.
“While the rules were clear and we followed them, we both know that’s not always enough”.
Butts’ and Telford’s claims were among the $1.1 million in moving expenses paid to some four dozen political staffers in various ministers’ offices, according to figures the government revealed earlier in the week in response to a Conservative MP’s written question. However, the Conservatives ended up on the defensive after House Leader Bardish Chagger revealed that a Conservative political staffer had billed taxpayers $93,000 for a move. “I can confirm that our Prime Minister’s Office is significantly smaller than the Prime Minister’s Office of the previous Conservative government”.
Trudeau has insisted all week that the Liberals followed all the rules.
The policy was last updated in 2011 and Butts said he and Telford made sure they were eligible to be reimbursed.
While the PMO accounted for the heftiest relocation bill, Telford and Butts were not the only staffers to make big claims. In the case of the two larger numbers for the PMO, the vast majority of the costs had to do with real estate and legal fees.
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The Conservatives have accused the Liberals of “entitlement” over the costs and hammered away at the Trudeau government during Question Period this week. “The chief responsibility of the Prime Minister is to be honest and forthright with Canadians in the House”.
