Loophole leaves taxpayers picking up tab for MP travel

A loophole in the House of Commons' spending rules has allowed MPs travelling to party conventions to bill taxpayers for more than half a million dollars over the past year — even though House of Commons rules normally prohibit MPs from charging expenses linked to partisan political activity.

Since May 2023, MPs have charged to the House of Commons $538,314 in travel, accommodation, meals and incidental costs associated with attending caucus meetings held in connection with party conventions — including more than $84,000 for travel by "designated travellers," often MPs' spouses.

Expense claims filed to the Senate by seven Conservative senators for travel, accommodation and per diems added another $26,293 to the total.

Conservative MPs racked up 79 per cent of the spending by MPs. They billed the House of Commons $426,283 to attend a caucus meeting associated with the Conservative Party's policy convention in Quebec City in September 2023, including $331,699 for travel, $71,408 for accommodations and $21,053 for meals and incidentals.

Conservative MPs were the only ones to bill Parliament for spouses' travel to a caucus meeting.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre did not file an expense claim to the House of Commons from his MP's budget for travel to Quebec City.

New Democratic Party MPs collectively filed the second highest total in expenses; they billed Parliament $83,087 to send MPs and a dozen of their employees to a caucus meeting associated with the party's convention in Hamilton in October 2023.

One of NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh's employees charged an expense claim to Singh's House of Commons MP's budget, but Singh himself did not.

The Bloc Québécois, whose MPs are all located in Quebec, billed the House of Commons $28,943 for travel to a caucus meeting linked to the party's convention in Drummondville, Que., in May 2023. Leader Yves-François Blanchet was among five Bloc MPs who didn't file claims for travel to Drummondville.

In a small number of cases, the expense claims filed by MPs from different parties included stops in Ottawa and other cities, or tacked on other activities like language training.

The Liberal Party is the only party recognized in the House whose MPs did not file expenses for attending a caucus meeting connected to a convention in the past year.

While a handful of Liberal MPs' staffers billed the House of Commons for travel from the riding to Ottawa at the same time the party was holding its convention in Ottawa, the party did not hold a caucus meeting in connection with the convention. Most MPs were already in Ottawa at the time because the House of Commons sat the week before and after the May convention.

Liberal MPs have billed the House of Commons over the years for travel to caucus meetings outside Ottawa that were not associated with a party convention.

Government House leader Steven MacKinnon said the Liberal Party decided in the leadup to its 2014 party convention in Montreal not to take advantage of the clause in the House of Commons spending rules that effectively allows MPs to bill Parliament for travel to party conventions.