Two months ago, Senator Mike Duffy decided he didn’t want to be a distraction and so he would be repaying the living allowance he claimed.
“So my wife and I discussed it, and we decided that in order to turn the page, to put all this behind us, we are going to voluntarily pay back my living expenses related to the house we have in Ottawa.”
Now, Senator Duffy says he will repay those expenses if he is found to have made an inappropriate claim.
“We haven’t heard from Deloitte. But I said I’m a man of my word, and if repayment is required, it’ll be repaid,” Duffy said outside the Senate Thursday. “I didn’t say I made a mistake. I said I may have made a mistake,” he said. “Words are important.”
Update 5:49pm. In a statement, Mike Duffy says he paid back his housing allowance in March. It’s not clear how to square that with his comments yesterday. In a separate statement, the Senate says he paid $90,172.24.