- Target:
- Government of Canada
- Region:
- Canada
Government Expense Accounts exist to fund MPs' and Senators' travel, hospitality, and other expenses directly related with their work. It's funded by Taxes and therefore should be spent responsibly, and the money spent should be transparent to the tax payers.
There was already National Public demand for this; on May 14th, 2010, the Auditor General Sheila Fraser was denied access to the expense account, MPs denied using the expense account beyond its intended purpose, but their defenses brought up more suspicion of irresponsible spending.
All four parties voted against allowing the auditor general access to the accounts. This happened in the wake of a scandal involving British MPs whose expense accounts had revealed irresponsible spending.
Testimonials from Liberal MP Michelle Simson, while she was a guest on the Roy Green Show, reveal that the expense accounts are not being used responsibly; most notable was an NDP MP who charged a parking ticket to their expense account. She has made her expense account spending transparent, and is alone in the crusade for all MPs to do the same, being silenced by her party for it.
"It's up to voters, not Fraser, to judge MPs' spending habit" - Joe Comartin, NDP MP for Windsor-Tecumseh.
In order to ensure the responsible spending of our tax dollars, we the undersigned, the voters of Canada, call on the Canadian Government to make all government expense accounts transparent to the tax payers. We also call on the Government to allow the auditor general access to the accounts.
Transparency breeds accountability, and this would be a big step in proving the trustworthiness of our politicians to all their critics.
You can further help this campaign by sponsoring it
The Support Government Expense Transparency petition to Government of Canada was written by Anthony and is in the category Government at GoPetition.