Spending scandals galore: Audit reveals that Brampton Mayor Susan Fennell breached city spending rules

What is going on with all these political spending scandals?

In Ottawa, we've got Senators Mike Duffy, Mac Harb and Patrick Brazeau awaiting trial for spending improprieties while, presumably, the RCMP continue their investigation into the expense claims of Pamela Wallin.

In Alberta, former premier Alison Redford resigned as an MLA on Wednesday after months of scrutiny over her travel expenses which include a $45,000 bill for a return flight to South Africa for Nelson Mandela's funeral.

[ Related: Former Alberta premier Alison Redford resigns as MLA ]

Last week — at the onset of the Harper government's new First Nations transparency law — we found out that a chief of an eighty member band in British Columbia earned over $1 million in 2013.

And then there's Brampton Mayor Susan Fennell.

In recent months, the Toronto Star has done a masterful job chronicling her bills; the newspaper claims that Fennell racked-up $186,000 in expenses, over three years, including an expense for Mandarin lessons.

On Tuesday, a forensic audit into all Brampton city councillor's suggested a number of irregularities.

"Fennell and her staff breached a number of the city’s spending rules 265 times for expenses such as high-cost airfare, premium hotel rooms and personal expenses, a forensic audit has found," notes the Star.

"The other 10 members of council had a total of $42,979 in expenses and charges that breached the city’s rules, and another $31,040 that might have breached the rules, the audit found."

According to the Star, the audit found that Fennell breached several rules with regard to travel and credit card usage but did reimburse the city for most of the latter.

One of the more the tantalizing line items, however, is the mayor's nine cellphone charges for "44 IQ quizzes that cost $220."

For her part, Fennell said in a statement that she accepts responsibility and will work to make changes, if needed.

[ Related: B.C. First Nation chief urged to quit over $800,000 contract bonus ]

So why do we have all these expense scandals happening all at once? Is it all a coincidence? Is it just being reported-on more? Or is there something else at play?

According to Gregory Thomas of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, it's simply a sign of the times.

"There’s no question that tougher disclosure rules are catching a lot of politicians by surprise," Thomas, the outgoing National Director of the CTF, told Yahoo Canada News.

"Senators, Premier Redford, Mayor Fennell, First Nations chiefs. They just didn’t expect the level of public anger over wasted money."

"We've just been going through the First Nations expense disclosures. Some band councillors report $4,000 annual mobile phone expenses, one had $6,000 in mobile phone expenses. How do you spend $6,000 on your mobile phone in a single year, in 2014?"

[ More Political Points: 77 days in, Iqaluit chooses to let toxic dump fire keep burning than spend money to put it out ]

Thomas has a point: if it wasn't for the push for an audit in the Senate, would we know about Mike Duffy's $90,000 housing allowance?

If it wasn't for Alberta having some of the toughest disclosure laws in the country, would we know about Alison Redford's expenses?

If it wasn't for the Harper government's First Nation transparency legislation, would we have ever learned about a million dollar chief?

As Canadians continue to force their governments to become ever more transparent, there's a good chance we can expect many more of these expense scandal stories.

Get ready for a spending scandal-palooza!

(Photo from Susan Fennell's Facebook page)

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