N.S. Liberals will pay back political mailout costs

The Liberals will pay back the money used to send out a controversial mailout to areas where byelections will soon be called.

Premier Stephen McNeil said his party — not the taxpayer — will cover the $7,000 cost of sending 33,000 political pamphlets to homes in the vacant riding areas of Dartmouth, Sydney and industrial Cape Breton.

PC Leader Jamie Baillie said that wasn't enough and called for a deterrent penalty for the violation.

On Wednesday, McNeil said he thought the rules on such advertising applied only during elections. "It was brought to the attention of us yesterday, we checked with Elections Nova Scotia. There's some discrepancy — that's not the case."

We wanted to get out the positive message from government- Stephen McNeil

In fact the rules take effect when a seat becomes vacant. McNeil said he didn't think "anyone understood that."

"The reason the three of them would have been identified [is because] they were vacant. There will be a byelection set," McNeil said. "We wanted to get out the positive message from government."                            

Byelections are expected to be held soon in the ridings of Dartmouth South, Cape Breton Centre and Sydney-Whitney Pier.

"Those three ridings will be going to the polls at some time in the next year and we wanted to get in there and make sure we put our message first," McNeil said. 

The mailout was first revealed by CBC News on Friday and the opposition Tories accused the McNeil government of using taxpayer money to fund byelection material.

Elections Nova Scotia started an investigation on Tuesday, as did Kevin Murphy, the Speaker of the House of Assembly.

Baillie calls for deterent penalty 

Jamie Baillie, the PC leader, dismissed the plea of ignorance, saying "no one else gets to use that excuse."

"Clearly what they did is illegal and they got caught. Now it's time to hold them accountable for wasting taxpayers' money and doing it illegally," he said.

Paying back the money wasn't enough, he said, and called for a deterrent penalty.

"Many Nova Scotians heard the premier and the finance minister over the last number of months say that there's no money," he said, citing the many cuts that came after the budget.

"And yet they found taxpayers' money for Liberal propaganda in byelection seats."