In
today's Toronto Star:
Quote:
MPPs in commuter towns spending thousands on Toronto accommodations
MPPs living within relatively easy driving distance of Queen’s Park are spending tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars a year to live in Toronto.
Annual members’ expenses for travel and Toronto accommodation (2013-14) that were released Thursday show MPPs from places as close as Barrie, Hamilton and Cambridge are spending as much as $22,000 each a year on housing allowance so they don’t have to drive or take the GO train to work — the same trip that thousands of commuters do every day.
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Who’s collecting a housing allowance
- NDP Leader Andrea Horwath charged $22,237 for housing allowance.
- Liberal MPP Ted McMeekin, now Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister, spent $22,237 on housing allowance. He has a car and driver available to him.
- NDP MPP Paul Miller charged $21,237 for housing allowance.
- NDP MPP Monique Taylor charged $20,833 for housing allowance.
This is obviously a sore spot for those of us regular Hamilton folk who also work in Toronto. We have to do the daily commute either by driving on that hell known as QEW/Gardiner or by taking the less-than-stellar GO Transit train/bus ride. Not only do we have to pay for our commute, we get to subsidize our MPP's cozy home away from home 70km down the road so they don't have to commute alongside the great unwashed.
Quote:
Liberal House Leader Yasir Naqvi said he looks forward to the legislature’s Board of Internal Economy discussing whether the allowance rule should be reopened. The board is responsible for money spent by the legislature and by the MPPs.
“Perhaps this issue will come up to be discussed.”
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath (Hamilton Centre), who has a Toronto apartment, noted that there are seldom night sittings, which was one of the reasons in past years to justify the home away from home paid for by taxpayers.
“I think it important to look at these things and see if they are still relevant,” she said.
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I take it this is more than simple lip service, and Horwath will be refunding her housing expense claims and will be encouraging her other Hamilton colleagues to do the same.