It's great that transparency of government activities is an issue in the 2010 City of Winnipeg election - there's certainly room for improvement at all three levels of government. Anytime the issue is put on the public's radar, that's a good thing.

To begin, it should be noted that the CTF has long been an advocate for transparency in government activities. Plain and simple, taxpayers should have the right to know how governments are spending their money.

That's why I sent an email to the Mayor and all members of council back in August 2008 (see below), calling for better disclosure of council expenses. The Auditor later issued a report on council expenses and also called for greater transparency.

Unfortunately, councillors Browaty, Clement, Gerbasi, Orlikow, Smith, Steeves, Swandel, Thomas and Lazarenko voted against implementation of the Auditor's recommendations back in December 2009; sending it off to "Secretariat Committee" (a black hole where reports go to die) and it's been in limbo ever since. Mayor Katz, Councillors Fielding, Nordman, O'Shaughnessy, Pagtakhan, Vandal and Wyatt voted against punting it off to that committee.

Similarly, the CTF called for greater transparency at the provincial and federal level. While progress has been made at the provincial level, all federal parties still seem bent on keeping their expenses and House of Commons spending secret. Go figure.

You can see why the CTF decided to call on Mayoral candidate Judy Wasylycia-Leis to release details of her MP expenses after she launched her campaign back in May and made "secrecy at City Hall" a major issue.

Following our news release, we heard from a member of Winnipeg's media that Ms. Wasylycia-Leis indicated that we could take a look at her expenses, but that she was too busy to go through them as she had a campaign to run. An email was sent to her campaign and a message was sent through a form on her web site (see below) asking when we could take a look.

Unfortunately, despite what was suggested in this story, we have yet to hear back from Judy's campaign.

May 5, 2010 Message to Judy Wasylycia-Leis:

Ms. Wasylycia-Leis,

Congratulations on your decision to run for Mayor. I would like to begin by applauding your decision to not accept your MP pension if you are successful. I was quite surprised to learn that Ottawa would reject your offer to give it back to the government - last time I checked they're running a massive deficit.

On another note, as you may be aware, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation has been quite vocal in calling for the transparency of elected officials' expenses across the country.

Unfortunately, the House of Commons does not allow the public or the Auditor General to investigate MP expenses. It is solely up to the member to decide if he/she would like to disclose them.

Therefore, we are hereby asking for you to release your expenses as a Member of Parliament.

Here is a link to today's news release doing just that -

http://www.taxpayer.com/manitoba/judy-%E2%80%93transparency-talk-nice-about-2046962

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Colin Craig,
Prairie Director - Canadian Taxpayers Federation

August 6, 2008 Email to Mayor Katz and all members of Council:

Dear Mayor Katz,

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) welcomes your decision last spring to post summaries of council members’ expenses online.  As city council is ultimately accountable to the ratepayers of Winnipeg, disclosing expense summaries online was a positive step in improving transparency of council activities.

However, the expense data that is currently disclosed on the city’s web site could be more complete by including details on how funds from all political budgets are used.  For example, the $7,000 budget that are available to standing committee chairs are not posted online.  The CTF recommends that all funds directly available to council members be disclosed to the public.

Further, as the material currently posted does not contain details as to individual expenses claimed, it is difficult for observers to gain insight into how tax dollars were actually spent.  For example, stating “$5,000” was spent on “meeting expenses” provides taxpayers with no information as to the number of meetings expensed, the purpose of each meeting and whether or not tax dollars were used in an appropriate manner.

To address this problem the Canadian Taxpayers Federation recommends scanning all receipts and placing them online along with a description of each expense.  Allowing public viewing at city hall of the binders which contain councillors’ expenses is another option that would increase accessibility of the information.

Finally, as you may know, Toronto’s city council recently approved new guidelines for councillors’ expenses.  Toronto’s elected officials will no longer be able to claim alcohol as a legitimate expense and an annual limit of $500 has been placed on meal expenses.  The CTF supports those changes and encourages the City of Winnipeg to adopt similar provisions.

Implementing the recommendations laid out by the CTF would make the expenses of Winnipeg’s elected officials the most transparent in all of Canada.  I look forward to discussing this matter with you further.  Thank you for considering our recommendations.

Sincerely,

Colin Craig,
Provincial Director – Manitoba