Fleetwood-Port Kells MP Nina Grewal spent $56,551.08 more than the average B.C. MP, and $110,625.634 more than the average Canadian MP. Dosanjh, who lost to Conservative Wai Young despite a nasty mean spirited campaign to retain his seat, spent $213,740.40 last year on travel for the “member, designated traveller and dependents.”
SURREY – One current and one ousted Indo-Canadian MP spent the second and third highest expenses allowed under their annual office budget.
Turncoat federal Liberal Vancouver-South MP MP Ujjal Dosanjh, who was thrown out by the electorate earlier this year, spent $584,966.37 and Fleetwood-Port Kells MP Nina Grewal spent $543,563.53, both getting the dubious honour of second and third highest spenders in BC.
The biggest B.C. spender was Cariboo-Prince George MP Richard Harris, with $585,074.90 in expenses,
Grewal, who won re-election this year, spent taxpayer money on items such as travel, employees’ salaries and service contracts, hospitality and events, advertising, printing and (constituency) offices in 2010-2011.
The average B.C. MP spent $487,012.494 last fiscal year, which is higher than the national average of $432,937.896 per MP, since Members of Parliament from this province have the farthest to travel to reach the House of Commons in Ottawa.
Grewal spent $56,551.08 more than the average B.C. MP, and $110,625.634 more than the average Canadian MP.
Grewal told the Surrey Leader newspaper on Tuesday that this is her fourth term in office, and that in past years, “my expenditures were in the middle of the pack.”
“Each year, my budget is not only balanced, but there is a healthy surplus,” she said.
This year, however, the area where Grewal spent more than any other B.C. MP was in the printing category, on pamphlets that are commonly known as “10 percenters.”
Called 10 percenters because the quantity produced must not exceed 10 per cent of the households in a riding, MPs can produce as many of them as they want as long as the content is substantially different each time.
Still, Grewal spent more than any other MP in the province on printing the flyers – $47,910.17 worth. Several other B.C. MPs refrained from spending any money in the same category; others ranged from $350 to the second-highest behind Grewal – $43,043.84 on 10 percenters – spent by Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge-Mission MP Randy Kamp.
Dosanjh, who lost to Conservative Wai Young despite a nasty mean spirited campaign to retain his seat, spent $213,740.40 last year on travel for the “member, designated traveller and dependents.”
