HoC committee memos show taxpayers also on the hook for MPs’ legal fees, settlements
Memos released by the House of Commons Board of Internal Economy show MPs spent more than half a million dollars to extend Parliament Hill’s shuttle bus service by about three blocks. The buses are meant to ferry MPs between office buildings and committee rooms on the Hill. The memos also reveal that at least one MP has been allowed to bill taxpayers for his or her legal fees in a defamation suit—so long as the MP wins the case—and another used government funds to pay all claims related to a settlement against the MP in a legal dispute relating to employment. The secretive Board of Internal Economy is charged with administering spending by the House of Commons, for which it approved a 0.3 per cent increase to $441,648,089 for 2011-2012.