What's a few thousand among friends?

It has once again been a week of shining the light on profligate public purchasing, a task so common during this past year, it has almost become a national political sport. Goodness knows it occurs with more frequency than CFL games.

In a wide-ranging access to information request from the Ottawa Citizen, the spending habits of numerous Privy Council government officials have made headlines.

But new champions of expense largesse have appeared from out of the blue. The favorite media pork-ish target of the past fiscal year had until now been former Privacy Commissioner George Radwanski. Radwanski, a relatively high-ranking government official, found many occasions to travel, wine, dine and party on the taxpayers' dime.

The newest contender in the 'spender of the month' sport didn't bother even to wait until he held high office: his job was as an aide to federal Heritage Minister Sheila Copps (who? that's what most Canadians will be saying by the time delegate selection for the Liberal leadership convention finishes this weekend).

Charles Boyer spent his last two years on the minister's staff living in high style: some $30,000 worth of restaurant and bar bills were claimed as government business expenses. To put that number into perspective, George Radwanski ran through some $10,000 in meal expenses during roughly the same period.

And the only reason he wasn't fired was because he up and quit before the axe could fall.

No such worries over which Charles Boyer need lay awake at night worrying. For starters, his expense account was approved by none other than the minister herself (who, incidentally, also signs and approves her own un-receipted expense account forms). Furthermore, Boyer, too, no longer holds the position in which he assisted his department in parting with so much of the public's bank account.

Despite the federal government's strict ethics rules (an oxymoron if ever one was), Mr. Boyer left the public service for the greener pastures of private industry, employed by the Canadian Broadcasting industry to lobby - that's right - his former employer.

Presumably, while his ability to write off meals may come under closer scrutiny when someone other than anonymous taxpayers are footing the bill, working on the opposite side of the lobby table - prior to the one year prohibition from doing so outlined in his previous contract with the Heritage Ministry - offers much more lucrative incentives than Ms. Copps could hope to match.

Go To Page: 1 2 3