An independent audit on the housing claims for three senators, due in the Senate today, will conclude they shouldn't have made the claims but that the rules are also unclear, CBC News has learned.
Senators Mike Duffy, Mac Harb and Patrick Brazeau have claimed tens of thousands of dollars in housing allowance claims in recent years.
CBC's Hannah Thibedeau reported that the Senate committee handling the audit report met Wednesday night and that Duffy and Harb were both there. Brazeau, a former Conservative who now sits as an Independent, is currently suspended from the Senate over a criminal charge in a separate matter.
The senators expenses were investigated by the accounting firm Deloitte. The Senate is expected to release a response to the report this afternoon that will include new rules for senators.
Thibedeau reported that the rules around claiming per diems are changing. Senators currently can claim a per diem for any day that they are in Ottawa, whether the Senate is sitting or not. That will change, so that per diems can only be claimed if the senators are in Ottawa for Senate business (when the Senate is sitting or to attend committee meetings for example), plus 20 extra days if they are in Ottawa for other activities related to Senate work.
Other areas where the rules will be tightened up include mileage and taxi claims. Receipts will now be required for all taxi use; previously, senators could claim $30 without a receipt.
It was the housing allowance claims being made by senators that first prompted the Senate to launch the review.
Since 2010, Harb has been claiming his primary residence is outside the capital, even though he had lived in Ottawa for decades before that time and owns several properties in the city. However, he says that he moved to a bungalow near Pembroke, Ont., about 145 kilometres from Ottawa and has been claiming expenses for maintaining what he says is a secondary residence near Parliament Hill he needs when he attends Senate sittings.
Senators who live more than 100 kilometres from Ottawa are allowed to claim housing expenses of up to $22,000 a year.
Harb's home near Pembroke is now for sale. He says he is selling the property because he has lost his right to privacy. He listed it about two weeks ago.
A media report Tuesday said Harb will be ordered to reimburse the taxpayers $100,000 for claiming expenses for housing and meals. However, Harb told CBC News he is "100 per cent confident" the Deloitte report will vindicate him.
Brazeau audited as well
Senator Brazeau is also being audited by Deloitte, because he claimed his primary residence is in his father's apartment in Maniwaki, Que.
Senator Patrick Brazeau talks to the media on Parliament Hill on Feb.12, 2013. His housing and meal expenses have been scrutinized by an independent auditor. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press) Brazeau, however, also lives in a house in Gatineau, Que., just across the river from Ottawa.
Duffy is also under review by Deloitte. However, Duffy has already repaid the Senate $90,000 for claiming a house in P.E.I as his primary residence although he has been a longtime homeowner in Ottawa. Outside the Conservative caucus room Tuesday, he told reporters, "The process is working as it should."
Harb did not want to speak about the Deloitte report, because, he said, the Senate told him not to until it was released.
A fourth senator, Pamela Wallin, is also being audited by Deloitte, but the firm has asked for more time to complete its report on her travel expenses between Ottawa and Saskatchewan.
The Senate has already passed new rules stating that senators must provide a driver's licence, health card and proof of where they pay provincial income tax before they can receive the $22,000 housing allowance.
Charlie Angus, the ethics critic for the NDP, asked in question period in the House of Commons Wednesday: "Will the government promise to turn over tomorrow's internal Senate audit to the police to ensure that there at least be some investigation of the senators who have been ripping off the Canadian taxpayers? At least do that."
Government House leader Peter Van Loan replied: "None of us yet know what those audits say. They will be looked at by the Senate committee tomorrow. Then, I believe, they will be released. Certainly that is our expectation, as it is very much our government's expectation that the rules must be followed and that if any monies were inappropriately reimbursed, they must be reimbursed to the government."
The RCMP does not have to be asked by government to open an investigation.
Early Thursday, an internal Senate committee will receive the Deloitte audit and review it in a private meeting. The committee will then table the report in the Senate, and shortly after, the report is expected to be made public.
The report can only make recommendations. If Harb and Brazeau are found to have claimed money inappropriately, an order to reimburse the funds will come from the Senate.
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