Advertisement

As the Senate resumes, 6 new rules Mike Duffy and others must adhere to

[Sen. Mike Duffy returns to Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Monday a day before the Senate resumes sitting again. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick]

Mike Duffy walks back into the Red Chamber on Parliament Hill as a senator once again after a three-year absence in which he lived under a cloud of suspicion and accusations of fraud, breach of trust and bribery.

On April 21, the former broadcaster was cleared of 31 charges connected to his Senate expenses and a $90,172 cheque from Stephen Harper’s then-chief of staff, Nigel Wright.

Ontario justice Charles Vaillancourt said the claims were within the guidelines of the Senate rules at the time but also cautioned that he had “uncomfortableness” with some of Duffy’s expenses, including the ones for his personal trainer — deemed a health advisor — and some of his travel receipts.

Vaillancourt lambasted the Senate administrative rules as “inadequate, poorly communicated, (and) criteria-lacking” and said they were the root of problems and mistakes made by senators such as Duffy when claiming expenses.

The fallout over the Duffy affair continues. Two other senators face a trial, a third could have charges laid and seven former senators are at risk of court orders which would require them to pay back more than half a million in expenses.

A few things have changed in Duffy’s absence. A group of senators, formed by a Senate committee that oversees Senate spending, have been reviewing the rules for more than a year.

"Our goal as an organization is to be as vigilant as possible, as clear as possible,” Conservative Sen. Leo Housakos, chairman of the internal economy committee, told the National Observer.

Here are a few of those new rules:

1. Primary and secondary residences nixed in favour of provincial/territorial residence and National Capital accommodation. Duffy represents Prince Edward Island, maintaining a summer home there, but lives a majority of the time in Ottawa. Senators used to designate their primary residences as the one they themselves identify as their main residence and is situated in the province/territory they represent.

Now, Duffy will have to declare his P.E.I. home as his provincial/territorial residence in order to get up to $24,000 a year in living expenses. Therefore, he must provide the Senate with a P.E.I. driver’s licence and health card (this would obligate him to live in P.E.I. for at least six months out of the year) in addition to a federal tax assessment.

2. Senators aren’t allowed any more to claim travel expenses related to political party fundraising events.

3. The option of charging the Senate for international travel is off the table unless the travel is part of committee business.

4. Senators must publicly report (every quarter) what their outside consultants have done for them. It must be detailed.

5. The ethics code — applied in the past only to monetary interests where someone could financially benefit — has been broadened with the addition of harsher sanctions to allow the Senate to punish any of its members who have acted in a way that is unbecoming of a senator.

6. Reimbursement for taxi rides costing less than $30 now require a receipt.