Tory cabinet minister Oda hid thousands of dollars in limo rides

May 7, 2008

Bruce Cheadle, THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA - Government documents show that Conservative cabinet minister Bev Oda racked up thousands of dollars in hidden expenses for limousine rides.

An access-to-information request by the NDP, covering the Conservative government's first 15 months in office, reveals invoices for Oda that were not "proactively" disclosed online under Treasury Board rules.

Oda, who was minister of Canadian heritage at the time, spent almost $17,000 on limos during the period - more than half of which never found its way on to her publicly disclosed expenses.

The limo receipts also point to a series of undisclosed flights and hotel stays of unknown cost to taxpayers, New Democrat MP Charlie Angus charged in the Commons.

"Average Canadians play by the rules," Angus said. "Why does she think she can break those rules with impunity?"

The minority Conservatives pride themselves on their ministerial frugality. But they've been stung by previous revelations that showed various ministers' expense disclosures were artificially lowered by hiding true travel costs.

Many Tory ministers also continue to file zero hospitality claims, despite being seen regularly at working lunches and dinners.

On Wednesday, Tory House leader Peter Van Loan responded that Oda's expenses were "done in accordance with Treasury Board rules," but conceded that one past problem has been corrected.

Last year, Oda repaid taxpayers more than $2,200 after the Liberals discovered that she'd spent almost $5,500 on limousines at the 2006 Juno awards in Halifax without disclosing the expense.

The balance of that Halifax limousine bill still doesn't show up on Oda's expense disclosure, yet Van Loan is now citing those artificially suppressed totals as a sign of Tory virtue.

"The minister's expenses are considerably lower than those of her Liberal predecessor," Van Loan told the Commons.

He also recited comparative numbers from several previous Liberal ministers to show that the Tories are disclosing less spending.

Van Loan's defence utterly misses the point, Angus said outside the Commons.

"I think we have to get a better standard of accountability and transparency from the government than simply to say, 'Well, geez, we haven't been spending all that much money because we've been keeping the numbers hidden.' ... So much for accountability, so much for transparency."

Liberal MP Mark Holland called Van Loan's reasoning "ridiculous."

"The fact of the matter is they're hiding expenses, they got caught and this is something they seem to be doing regularly."

The system of quarterly "proactive disclosure" of ministerial travel and hospitality expenses began under the previous Liberal government after a series of spending scandals.

In an attempt to clear the air, former Liberal ministers made a point of cataloguing every possible expense - from departmental Christmas parties to working lunches and chartered aircraft flights.

Some of those Liberal disclosures, in turn, allowed the Conservative opposition to attack ministers for using taxpayer-funded services for partisan events.

That's precisely what the NDP found that Oda was doing in Toronto last March 17, when she billed $1,291.88 for a limo that took her from her home to a Conservative party candidate training session. She also made a government announcement later in the day.

In that particular case, the expense was proactively disclosed by Oda - but not the party function.

"There's no justification for a $1,300 limousine ride that goes to a Conservative meeting," said Angus. "Take that to the average Canadian and ask if this is a perfectly acceptable expense."

It's not the first time that access-to-information requests have revealed spending details that Tory ministers had kept under wraps.

Both Transport Minister Laurence Cannon and Labour Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn were found to have regularly flown on expensive charter and government aircraft last year without reporting it.

Both ministers claimed the costs were detailed elsewhere, and thus had been technically disclosed.

But it required access requests, followed by the painstaking work of cross-referencing flight manifests and dates against reported expenses, to reveal their hidden travels.

Angus believes it's a cabinet-wide tactic.

"My sense from the government's answer today is the government's not ashamed of this behaviour, they think this is perfectly OK," said the New Democrat.

"So are other ministers doing the same thing, which is racking up phenomenal bills for travel and then just keeping it hidden?"

James Morton
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