4 senators challenge auditor general's expense-scandal findings
Rose-Marie Losier-Cool spent 16 days in Moncton during her 448 days as a senator
Four senators from New Brunswick are disputing the findings of an auditor general's report that implicates them in the upper chamber's expense scandal.
One of them, retired Liberal senator Rose-Marie Losier-Cool, will see her case referred to the RCMP for further investigation amid allegations she misrepresented her primary residence — the same allegation that ensnared suspended Conservative senator Mike Duffy.
She was found to have claimed living and travel expenses of more than $110,000 that the auditor general says were not legitimate.
Losier-Cool told CBC News she intends to challenge the findings through an arbitration process set up by the Senate itself. She read a prepared statement over the phone.
"I have taken note of the content of the auditor general's report," she said.
"This report is a preliminary step in this process, and I disagree with the conclusions contained in the report, and fully intend on taking part in the arbitration process provided by the Senate."
That process will be overseen by retired Supreme Court of Canada justice Ian Binnie.
Losier-Cool hung up the phone after reading her statement, without mentioning how she will deal with the police investigation.
Losier-Cool claimed Moncton as her primary residence, making her eligible for living expenses for her accommodation in Gatineau, Que.
16 days in Moncton during auditing period
But the audit, which looked at the period between April 1, 2011 and March 31, 2013, says it's clear Gatineau was her primary residence — rendering her ineligible for the living expenses she claimed.
Losier-Cool retired part way through the period covered by the audit, so it examines 448 days of her Senate tenure. It found that she spent only 16 of those days in Moncton.
In 2010-11, she spent eight days in Moncton, the audit said.
"The senator therefore claimed living expenses that would have been ineligible for reimbursement if she had declared her primary residence to be in Gatineau," the audit said.
That also meant some of her travel to Moncton wasn't for parliamentary business and wasn't eligible.
The total expenses the auditor found ineligible were $63,826. The audit said another $46,225 in travel couldn't be backed up by supporting documents.
In a response contained in the auditor general's report, Losier-Cool said she provided the Senate with documents including her Medicare card, income tax return, and driver's licence showing she was a resident of New Brunswick.
She said some of her expenses related to her work as an advocate for women and francophones, but the auditor general "deliberately refuses to consider the particular features of both my work as an Acadian Senator and the expense claims that I submitted."
Family funeral claimed as senatorial business
Three other New Brunswick senators will not see their cases referred to the police, but are nonetheless criticized in the audit for their expenses.
Liberal Senator Sandra Lovelace Nicholas has questionable expenses totalling $75,227, including travel to Halifax and western Canada that the auditor did not consider part of her work as a senator. The audit says Lovelace Nicholas, from Tobique First Nation, often stays in Fredericton overnight to catch a flight to Ottawa, but that lengthier stays in Fredericton — some up to nine days — were not eligible for reimbursement.
Lovelace Nicholas says in an official response that it was often easier for her to meet with First Nations groups and others in Fredericton, and that her other travel was also part of her duties. "If I remained exclusively at the Tobique First Nation as the auditor general apparently wishes, I would miss important opportunities to represent my community effectively," she said.
Liberal Senator Joe Day claimed $19,634 in expenses that were not Senate business, according to the audit. This includes trips he took as part of his role as a board member of the Canadian branch of the Duke of Edinburgh Awards.
Day says in his official response that many of the disputed expenses were pre-approved. He also disputed a finding that "hospitality expenses" at his home should not have been reimbursed. "At no time did Senate Finance question the location of my reception, which I held annually over the last several years," he wrote. "If the policy had changed I should have been advised when my claim was being processed."
Retired Conservative Senator Noel Kinsella had a total of $9,386 in expenses questioned by the audit. More than half of that was the cost of Kinsella and his wife attending his sister's husband's funeral in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. Kinsella told the auditors it was Senate business because the man was a former University of New Brunswick football player and prominent Italian-Canadian, and he wouldn't have attended if he wasn't a senator.
Kinsella also argued the trip was pre-approved by the Senate administration, but the audit disagreed: "We determined that the trip was for personal activities."
Lovelace Nicholas, Day, and Kinsella did not respond to calls from CBC News. Other media reports said Lovelace Nicholas plans to use the arbitration process set up by the Senate to resolve her case.