Looking for a bit of fun? Try calling up your provincial or federal politician’s office and ask if you can pop by and go through their expenses.

After an awkward pause on the phone, you’ll probably hear your federal representative’s assistant delicately explain some reason as to why you can’t see their expenses. Conversely, if you call your provincial representative’s office you’ll probably find a much more inviting response.

And therein lies the difference between the two sets of politicians – provincial rules are good (not yet great), but federally things are embarrassingly bad.

Consider, back in 2010, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, a donation-based taxpayers’ watchdog organization, looked into provincial politicians’ expense disclosure. At the time, anyone could walk into any provincial MLA’s office and review a book with expense details or visit the clerk’s office in the legislature and see the same information.

It was an ok system, but it clearly required some improvements. After all, for those living outside of Regina, they didn’t really have a convenient way of keeping tabs on their MLA’s expenses anonymously.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation asked both the Saskatchewan Party and the Saskatchewan NDP if they would take the reports available in their offices and begin placing them online. To their credit, both parties agreed and the docs were published online not too long afterwards.

Within a few clicks, taxpayers can now see a fair amount of info on how public funds are being spent. For example, online you can see that NDP MLA Danielle Chartier spent $135.45 at Don’s Photo on March 30, 2012 for a “voice recorder.” The same site shows Sask Party MLA Russ Marchuk expensed $353.70 at “Supreme Basics” on February 1, 2012 for “Misc Supplies.”

However, if you want to see receipts for each, you can only see them if the MLA agrees to let you. While Ms. Chartier’s expense seems pretty self explanatory, one doesn’t know much about Mr. Marchuk’s. Thus, the Legislature should change the rules to give the public the right to see all receipts rather than relying on cooperation from an MLA. Alternatively, the Legislature could follow the City of Toronto’s lead and just start posting each receipt online for all to see.

Federally, it’s a totally different story. Reports are tabled each year that show you how much each Member of Parliament and Senator spent by category.

For example, Regina MP Ralph Goodale spent $168,592 on travel in 2011-12, but that’s all we know. The only way someone can see a breakdown of how Mr. Goodale spent that $168,592 is for Mr. Goodale to grant you permission to see the bills or by tunneling into the House of Commons’ record room.

We certainly don’t advise the latter and several MPs have flat out refused cooperation in recent years. Incredibly, some MPs have even tried to suggest – with a straight face – that they’re already transparent by simply disclosing totals by category. We all know how well that’s worked out for the Senate.

All three major federal parties seem to be united in their hesitation to put all expense receipts online. Let’s face, they’re likely worried about certain members getting butchered in the media for questionable expenses from the past they thought they could keep hidden.

However, there is nothing stopping them from disclosing all expenses going forward as of, say September 1st or some other date.

Regardless, it’s clear the provincial expense disclosure rules could use some improvement, while federally they require a lot. For a lark, try calling your local politicians’ offices…you’ll likely come to the same conclusion.

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