"I'll show you mine if you show me yours": NDP want to see Harper's Office Staff salaries and expenses

"The New Democrats are countering a request by a Conservative MP to see the salaries of top CBC on-air personalities by asking for the same level of disclosure of pay for senior staff in the Prime Minister’s Office, including chief of staff Nigel Wright and communications director Angelo Persichilli.

Conservative Brent Rathgeber last week tabled an order paper question calling on the public broadcaster to reveal how much it pays anchor Peter Mansbridge and comedian Rick Mercer, as well as produce a list of all CBC staff making more than $100,000 annually. The CBC might have an out via the Broadcast Act and it is uncertain whether it will be required to comply with the request.

But it’s hard to see how the Prime Minister’s Office can dodge the NDP’s request to produce the salaries and benefits paid to, among others, former directors of communications Dimitri Soudas, now with the Canadian Olympic Committee, and Kory Teneycke, who now helps run Sun News Network.  The request also asks for hospitality and travel expenses.

The employees named are “exempt staff,” whose salaries are supposed to be pegged to the pay ranges for equivalent positions in the public service. Where exactly they land in those ranges is not known.

In one of three order paper questions tabled Monday byMP Tyrone Benskin , the NDP asks for:

Mr. Benskin (Jeanne-Le Ber) – With Regard to the Prime Minister’s Office and its current and former employment of Bruce Carson, Dimitri Soudas, Sandra Buckler, Guy Giorno, Nigel Wright, Ian Brodie, Ray Novak, Andrew McDougall, Kory Teneycke, Alykhan Velshi and Angelo Persichilli: (a) what were/are the employment agreements with each of these individuals in terms of (i) salary, (ii) vehicle allowance or provision of car and/or driver, (iii) expense account for food, drink, alcohol and hospitality, (iv) out-of-town accommodations for the individual; (b) in each of the years between 2000 and 2011, how much did each of these individuals expense for (i) food, (ii) travel, (iii) hotels, (iv) hospitality, (v) drink, (vi) vehicle use; (c) what were the itemized amounts and descriptions of each individual’s individual expenses as identified in the answers to (b); and (d) if the PMO provides any of these individuals with a vehicle for his use, as identified in the answers to (a)(ii), broken down by individual, (i) what is the model and make of the car, (ii) how much does this benefit cost the PMO on an annual basis?

Just as Rathbeger asked for a list of CBC employees making more than $100,000 a year, the NDP is also calling for the same from PMO and other ministers’ offices.

And in language nearly identical to one of Rathbeger’s order paper questions for hospitality expenses from overseas CBC bureaus, the NDP wants the same accounting for PMO and other ministerial staff expenses claimed for hospitality, food, drinks, hotels and transportation in Rome, London, Washington, Paris and Boston.

The government will have 45 days to answer the questions." - Glenn McGregor, The Ottawa Citizen.