Senate's top spender defends long list of contracts for outside consultants
CBC
A non-affiliated senator from Manitoba is the biggest spender in the Red Chamber — but she defends her expenses by saying she's an active parliamentarian who needs a lot of help and wants to pay her consultants fairly.
Marilou McPhedran, named to the Senate by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2016, spends comparatively more than other senators to retain outside aides and consultants.
Since January 2021, McPhedran has awarded $193,881 worth of contracts to part-time and casual employees — mostly students — researchers, government relations professionals and one activist who's written about lowering the federal voting age to 16, a cause the senator has championed in recent years.
In an interview, McPhedran conceded she'd likely spend more than she does now if Senate finance officials didn't routinely deny her requests for more resources.
"I'm someone they say 'no' to a lot because they don't understand how I try to do things," she said.
"I don't do things the way most other senators have been doing it. I'm not interested in that."
McPhedran said she doesn't want to rely solely on full-time staff — she also wants outside experts to work on her various projects.
"I want to be able to create a learning environment using the resources given to me. I think that's completely within the boundaries," she said.
The Winnipeg senator is also known for spending more than her colleagues on travel. She posted trip expenses that totalled more than $54,000 for the last three months of 2022 alone, according to Senate data.
Since July 2022, McPhedran has spent $108,082 on travel.
Under the Senate's travel policy, senators are entitled to fly business class — which can lead to pricey fares paid for by taxpayers.
McPhedran's recent flight to Victoria for a conference cost more than $5,000.
While she dips into the federal treasury more often than others, McPhedran is also among the most transparent senators when it comes to financial disclosure.
She posts a detailed statement on her Facebook page whenever there's a new expenses report published by the Senate administration.
It's small things, like a cigarette or a pair of clean socks, Rachel Montour says, that can go a long way to make you feel more human when you’re out on the street.
Several dozen members of Windsor's Chaldean community and its supporters celebrated in the cold at the corner of Marentette Avenue and Wyandotte Street East Friday, as city officials gave a secondary name to the section of Marentette between Wyandotte and Tuscarora Street: Chaldean Way.
Allison Hill says she tries to make people’s experience at the Thunder Bay Food Bank “as pleasant as possible.”
Two years after a man went missing in Scarborough, Toronto police are renewing the investigation in hopes that the public will bring forward more information.
A musical instrument created in Guelph, Ont., has been thrust onto the international stage — or rather, screen.
More than 1,000 Maritime Electric customers are without power after high winds blew across the Island Friday night into Saturday.
The Supreme Court of Canada is deliberating a case that could shape the way sentences are handed down in cases where both the offender and victim are Indigenous, which some Nunavut lawyers say could have ramifications for the Inuit-majority territory.
A man barricaded in a former church in Welland, Ont., was taken into custody early Saturday, nearly 24 hours into a standoff that began over a fence dispute.
Peel police are investigating after a Friday night shooting in Mississauga left one person dead, police said.
Another busy construction season has come to an end in London, and the city is already looking ahead to next spring when a slew of new projects are expected to begin.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has begun to lay out publicly what he sees as boundaries when dealing with China, as his government wades into a new relationship with the economic giant.
Ferry crossings are cancelled and over a thousand households are left without power Saturday morning, due to high winds and severe weather conditions.
Tens of thousands of Nova Scotia Power customers are waking up without power on Saturday morning after high winds and rain hit the province on Friday night.