Government Leader in the Senate Marjory LeBreton says she will push to have new rules governing Senate expenses passed before the summer break, saying the move is 鈥渃rucial鈥� to the survival of the institution.
LeBreton told CTV鈥檚 Question Period Sunday that she plans to introduce the proposed changes to Senate rules for a vote on Tuesday.
The changes, which she first revealed last Wednesday, include a number of measures aimed at tightening the rules on how senators can claim their travel expenses.
鈥淭his is crucial,鈥� she said, suggesting that the issue of improper expense claims was only exposed after the Conservative majority in the Senate began to release spending reports on a quarterly basis.
鈥淚t did expose a very serious problem in the way the Senate has run itself for years, and it has to be fixed or the institution will not survive,鈥� she said.
The new rules are being proposed as the RCMP continues to examine the expense claims of Senators Mike Duffy, Mac Harb and Patrick Brazeau.
LeBreton said she 鈥渁bsolutely鈥� supports calls to make public the hearings by the Senate internal economy committee 鈥� which is charged with re-investigating Duffy鈥檚 expenses -- as well as calls to invite the scrutiny of the auditor general.
However she has no plans to change the makeup of the committee, despite the appearance of a conflict of interest.
Earlier this week 愛污传媒 that specific paragraphs concerning Duffy鈥檚 expenses were removed from a report tabled earlier in May, on the order of Conservative Senators David Tkachuk and Carolyn Stewart Olsen. Both Tkachuk and Olsen are part of the internal economy committee, with Tkachuk acting as committee chair. The revelation led to accusations that Duffy鈥檚 report had been sanitized by his Conservative colleagues.
鈥淚t is an appearance. That鈥檚 all it is, is an appearance,鈥� she said. 鈥淩ight now we鈥檙e dealing with speculation and a lot of accusations that happen not to be true.鈥�
Senate opposition Leader Sen. James Cowan said Liberal senators will support the proposed changes, but maintained that the new rules are simply a 鈥渄istraction,鈥� and do not address the improperly claimed expenses filed by Duffy, Brazeau and harb
Cowan told CTV鈥檚 Question Period that he suggested passing the proposed rules the day they were introduced.
鈥淚 said we would support it. Not because we think it鈥檚 a great improvement, but we think it鈥檚 a distraction and we should just remove that distraction,鈥� he said.
He said that Tkachuk still has many questions to answer concerning Duffy鈥檚 edited report. He also said that he鈥檚 pushed for the committee hearings to be made public.
