Taxpayers spent $21 million on a sweeping new Auditor’s General audit that uncovered 10 more senators with troubling expense claims, CTV News revealed Tuesday.
Now, CTV has learned it will likely cost millions more in public funds for the RCMP to investigate those 10 unnamed senators.
Documents show more than $1.7 million was spent on police investigations into suspended Conservative senators Mike Duffy, Patrick Brazeau and Pamela Wallin, along with retired Liberal Sen. Mac Harb.
The RCMP investigations into Duffy, Brazeau and Harb cost $919,775. That’s on top of an audit that cost $138,784.
The police investigation into Wallin, which is ongoing, cost $823,685 as of last year. That followed an audit that cost $390,058.
So far, Duffy has paid back $90,172, Harb has paid back $231,649 and Wallin has returned $138,969. The Senate has garnished the wages of Brazeau to recover $48,745.
In total, $528,842 has been spent and $509,535 has been recovered from those four senators.
In this image taken from video, the total cost of the police investigation into Mike Duffy, Patrick Brazeau, Pamela Wallin and Mac Harb is shown.
The 10 senators noted in the new Auditor General’s audit filed questionable expense claims in excess of $100,000 – a substantial amount of money, but an amount much lower than what will likely be spent by investigators.
Official Opposition Leader Tom Mulcair said Wednesday that the money spent so far is worthwhile.
“It is an expense that will shock Canadian taxpayers understandably,” he said from Windsor, Ont. “But if that’s what it took to actually prove the case, that’s money well spent.”
“To hear that there are 10 RCMP investigations into people who purportedly are in a position to make laws and tell the rest of us how to behave says a lot of about the Senate,” Mulcair added.
Garry Clement, former National Director for the RCMP’s Proceeds of Crime Program, agreed on Wednesday with Mulcair that it’s worth spending millions to uncover potential mismanagement of public funds, in order to prevent future mismanagement.
“I think the best example we can use that’s fresh in people’s minds is what was found in (the) Charbonneau commission,” he said, referring to the investigation by Quebec Justice France Charbonneau, who found politicians regularly received kickbacks from the construction industry.
The new Auditor General's report notes that ten more Senators are being investigated for filing questionable expense claims.
“If you look back in time, there’s no doubt about it that individuals saw small amounts of money that were inappropriately used and they turned a blind eye,” he added. “When everyone turns a blind eye, you end up with a culture of total chaos.”
Mulcair said his party continues to support abolishing the Senate, as it has for more than 40 years. The NDP has no senators because senators are appointed by prime ministers and the NDP has never formed government.
The Conservatives under Prime Minister Stephen Harper proposed an elected Senate, but the Supreme Court ruled last year that such a change would need the approval of seven provinces representing 50 per cent of the population.
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau prefers a Senate more independent from political parties, which he took a step toward last year by expelling senators from the Liberal caucus.
With a report from CTV National News Correspondent Omar Sachedina
