Big Spenders

Sometimes they make it too easy, those MLAs. This week in the news has been like Mardi Gras for writers and reporters.

Do we get furious and pull our hair out? Do we protest and demand change? Or do we just laugh as they try desperately to do damage control? I haven’t decided yet; maybe all of the above.

In case you’ve been buried in a hole for the past week and haven’t heard, the Auditor General reported last Wednesday that MLAs province-wide have claimed excessive or inappropriate expenses over the past 3 years. Since the public generally regards the government as “a bunch of crooks” I don’t think the A-Gs report comes as much of a surprise to anyone, but the details – the confirmation, if you will – are still enough to disgust voters.

I mean, where do you even start? How does one begin to outline everything that’s wrong with the situation that was exposed by the Auditor General? Perhaps I’ll start with the A-G himself.

Mr. Lapointe has simultaneously done us a great service and a great disservice. While he has called attention to the “weaknesses” (his word) in the funding system relating to members’ expenditures, opened the lid on particular incidents of inappropriate spending, and even requested repayment for certain claims, he’s as complicit as any one of the guilty parties by virtue of his refusal to release the names of the people involved.

Sure, most members have come forward to admit their “mistakes” (and I use that word very loosely), but it’s only because they knew that, eventually, the papers would find out anyway. The names of the big spenders should have been released with the rest of the details. If it were a single party responsible, the other parties would be scrounging for info like ravenous vultures and relentlessly demanding that “the public has a right to know the truth”. But, since in this situation one party is as guilty as the other, there was instead a wall of silence and various colorful speeches about “rights to privacy”. Had Lapointe worried less about embarrassing his buddies in the boys’ club and more about keeping individuals accountable to their constituents, the public might have been afforded some real transparency.

And, speaking of accountability, when do the Mounties come in? When do we see news footage of these MLAs’ unceremonious dismissals from office? They did, after all, bilk the public out of tens of thousands of dollars. Every now and then, a regular office employee uses company cash to invest or vacation, whatever the vice, and Steve Murphy chronicles the entire saga from arrest to verdict. No one lets them off the hook just because they claim it was an honest mistake and offer to pay the money back. It brings to mind a bit of 80s Nova Scotia government déjà vu, but in this case (apparently), an appropriate punishment applies only to the goose, while all the ganders get off scot free. It’s unacceptable.

Are we expected to believe that a functioning adult could ever mistakenly believe that 11 laptop computers is a legitimate constituency expense? Mr. Lapointe says, “(the rules) around expenses simply aren’t clear. (They are) so ambiguous, it’s hard to tell what’s right and what’s wrong.” Really? It’s hard? Maybe I’m over-simplifying, but if you can’t establish whether or not buying a 40” big screen television with taxpayer dollars is wrong, I doubt you could be considered qualified to chew gum and walk at the same time, let alone serve as MLA.

Granted, maybe some MLAs didn’t use their time in office to intentionally milk the province for all it was worth. But, since admittedly there hadn’t been a review of expense claims in over 15 years, there was nothing stopping people from claiming these ludicrous expenses and getting away with it.

If you had taken pens from work for 15 years and no one told you not to, you’d probably continue to take them. After awhile, you might even convince yourself it’s okay, no one’s getting hurt and no one even knows the difference. But, when you get caught, you can’t claim it was an innocent mistake. Especially if they’re $7000 pens.
Guess what, Province House: we’re wise to the “oh really? I thought I was allowed to claim that” charade; have been for years, actually. You’re not fooling anyone with fancily-worded accounts of innocent mistakes. Lapointe opened Pandora’s box, and you can be confident that this time the province’s purse-strings will be tightened if we have anything to say about it.

Best of luck come election time, by the way.