Senator Janis G. Johnson

Appendix B—Files recommended for review by the Standing Senate Committee on Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration Senator Janis G. Johnson

Province: Manitoba

Appointment date: 27 September 1990

For the period from 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2013

Total amount of items referred to the Internal Economy Committee
(including applicable taxes)
$22,706

Findings—travel

We found several instances of travel expenses claimed by the Senator that were not primarily for parliamentary business.

1. During the audit period, the Senator frequently travelled between Winnipeg and Vancouver. The travel claims indicated that the purpose of the trips was for meetings or Senate business. However, on the basis of available information, we found that the Senator often spent several days in Vancouver, with only one or two short appointments related to Senate business. Furthermore, we observed a pattern of those trips coinciding with statutory holidays and occurring over the summer.

The Senator’s comments

I am disappointed by the analysis and conclusions reached by the OAG.

The audit makes no reference to the Senators’ Travel Policy under which these expenses were submitted. That is what guided me when I incurred them. Shouldn’t that guide the audit?

That Policy explicitly recognizes that Senators can combine parliamentary work with private business and personal travel with the only proviso that a Senator should not seek reimbursement for any expenses that relate to personal matters - which I never did.

The OAG also observes that some of my trips occurred around holiday periods. The Policy also permits this. Given our sitting schedule, much of the business done by Senators outside of Ottawa can only occur during holiday breaks.

Because I attended to personal matters on these trips or they occurred around holidays should not confound the fact that their primary purpose was always for parliamentary business. The genesis for each trip was parliamentary business and any personal business or holidays were only considered and added after that. In other words, my personal interests did not drive the agenda, parliamentary business did.

I have been a Senator for almost 25 years and I have always been mindful of how I use public funds. I have never sought to have the public pay for my personal travel. In that regard, it should be noted that during the period under review I used only 53 travel points out of an allowable 128 and all of my expenses, including travel, came in under budget.

I also note that the OAG has provided only a brief summary in regard to the challenged trips and has stated that I did not provide “any” or “sufficient” additional information. That is inaccurate. For each of the trips, I provided the names of the individuals with whom I met and their contact information along with background emails and other documents confirming the meetings. I also provided hundreds of pages of supporting information to demonstrate the purpose of these meetings and how they relate to parliamentary business. The OAG makes no mention of any of this.

In a subsequent discussion I had with the OAG, they conceded that indeed on each of these trips there were meetings which involved parliamentary business (even though the OAG summaries leave the contrary impression). They just ‘felt’ that the purpose of the trips was more personal than parliamentary.

In saying this, the OAG has applied a factor not even included in the Senator’s Travel Policy. The Policy has always permitted the combination of personal business with parliamentary business; it does not provide for and the approval process has never included a subjective determination as to which was predominant. Frankly, such a provision would be arbitrary and unworkable unless it included clear criteria so we could know in advance how it will be applied. In the absence of those criteria, the OAG has reached a subjective conclusion, applying criteria not part of the Policy and contrary to the true facts.

Appendix B—Files recommended for review by the Standing Senate Committee on Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration

Report of the Auditor General of Canada to the Senate of Canada—Senators’ Expenses