NDP wants Supreme Court opinion on fight over parliamentary resources
Posted February 27, 2015 2:57 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA – New Democrat MPs want to take the battle over their allegedly improper use of parliamentary resources all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.
They’ve written Justice Minister Peter MacKay asking him to refer the matter to the top court.
They want the court to advise whether the rulings of the secretive, multi-party board of internal economy are subject to judicial review.
The board, which polices House of Commons spending, has ruled that 68 current and former NDP MPs improperly pooled their Commons office budgets to pay the salaries of 28 staffers working in satellite party offices in Montreal, Quebec City and Toronto.
The board sent bills earlier this month to each of the MPs demanding that they personally repay a total of $2.75 million.
The lawyer for the New Democrat MPs has informed the acting Commons clerk that the money will not be repaid until there is a “final judgment” on the matter.
