Nice work if you can get it

Former Liberal MP David Dingwall, now president of the Royal Canadian Mint, racked up office expenses of over $740,000.00 in 2004:

Included were over $130,000 in foreign and domestic travel, $14,000 in meals and $11,000 in hospitality. The mint also appears to have picked up a $1,400 tab for Dingwall's membership in an Ottawa-area golf club, and $1,500 in membership fees in the Nova Scotia barristers' society.

Documents outlining the spending were obtained under the Access to Information Act by Conservative MP Brian Pallister. He believes that Dingwall, a former Liberal cabinet minister, owes the public an explanation.

"It's kind of shocking," Pallister said in an interview Tuesday. "This is a continuation of an unfortunate trend among Liberal patronppointees to show relatively little respect for the people who pay their bills."
[...]
The total expenses of $747,000 for the president's office in 2004 include many items that are clearly routine and not tied directly to Dingwall.

Among them are freight charges, telephone bills, office supplies and promotional payments.

In other cases, however, the spending can be traced to Dingwall and two of his senior aides, Gloria McArter and Nancy Bleses.

Their bills for foreign travel ran over $91,000 last year, while domestic travel was pegged at over $39,000.

By contrast, the bills for meals eaten abroad were a relatively modest $3,300, compared to $11,100 for domestic restaurant bills.

Among the latter was a $5,300 tab that appeared to have been spent on a single sitting billed to McArter's name. No details were provided on how many people attended.

The golf membership was at the posh Rivermead club, just across the Ottawa River in Aylmer, Que., a favourite hangout for the capital's political and business elite.

Posted by damian at September 28, 2005 08:02 AM | TrackBack