High flyers
Parliamentary printing costs continue to climb
Posted By Morgan Ian Adams
Posted 3 months ago
Simcoe-Grey's Helena Guergis came within a whisker of being the top-spending MP when it comes to printing costs on Parliament Hill.
The Parliament's Board of Internal Economy released the 2008-09 individual members expenditures on Monday; the document includes member spending on office rent, travel and printing — which includes the cost of sending out the infamous 10-percenter householders.
Guergis — and the ruling Conservatives — have faced significant criticism the last couple of years for the sheer number of householders that have come from the bowels of the Conservative Research Group and into mailboxes across Canada. In the months prior to the calling of last October's federal election, homeowners across the county — and especially Simcoe-Grey — were inundated with the poorly-reproduced single-page flyers. At one point last summer, a number of Collingwood residents reported receiving multiple tenpercenters in their mailbox on a single day.
Many of the mailers boasted of Conservative Party accomplishments and asked the recipient to choose, on a mock ballot, between four party leaders (Stephen Harper, former Liberal leader Stéphane Dion, Jack Layton and Elizabeth May) he or she believes is on the "right track" with that particular issue.
The return address is to the Conservative Research Group-Government Caucus Services, the Conservative Party's parliamentary research arm.
Under the rules, 10-percenters are permitted to go out to 10 per cent of the homes in an MP's riding as often as three times a week. Ten-percenters can also be sent into other MPs ridings.
The cost of printing and mailing — and return postage for those who send the so-called 'surveys' back — are paid for by tax dollars, as long as the leaflets are used to inform the public about parliamentary issues. The rules ban the use of free printing and mailing privileges to produce campaign-style literature that urges people to vote one way or another.
Guergis also faced criticism for sending out a four-page constituency newsletter during the campaign period, a cost which she said she was cover under her election expenses, but later indicated that Elections Canada wouldn't allow her.
In the last fiscal period, Guergis' printing costs were $86,808, a 55-per-cent increase from the previous fiscal period when she spent nearly $56,000. In 2006-07 and 2005-06, Guergis spent about $28,000 on printing.
She was second to Northumberland-Quinte West Conservative MP Rick Norlock, who spent $87,749 in 2008-09.
Across Parliament, spending on printing has nearly doubled since the Conservatives came into office. In 2004-05, MPs spent $4.8 million on printing; in the first full year of the Conservative government, that number jumped to $7.8 million, while last year printing costs were $9.4 million.
In the fiscal period ending in March, printing costs were a shade over $10 million.
Last year, Ajax-Pickering MP Mark Holland asked the House of Commons Board of Internal Economy — the committee that oversees, among other things, the printing and distribution of literature from Members of Parliament to constituents — to require the Conservatives to repay the public treasury for the printing and mailing costs.
Holland's riding was flooded with mailings from Conservative MPs prior to the last election — including Dean Allison, Dave Mackenzie, Andrew Scheer, Dean Del Mastro, Jacques Gourde and Gary Goodyear — pointing out that Holland was absent from several votes in the House, including the budget and the Tackling Violent Crime Act.
Of the top-20 spenders for printing (from Norlock, down to Rick Dykstra, who spent $69,451), 19 are Conservatives, with the NDP's Olivia Chow — who represents a riding in downtown Toronto — the only non-Tory.
For more on this, watch Friday's Enterprise-Bulletin
