Senator Lowell Murray (retired)
Appendix B—Files recommended for review by the Standing Senate Committee on Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration Senator Lowell Murray (retired)
Province: Ontario
Appointment date: 13 September 1979
Retirement date: 26 September 2011
For the period from 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2013
| Total amount of items referred to the Internal Economy Committee (including applicable taxes) |
$16,300 |
Findings—travel
We found instances of travel expenses claimed by the Senator that were not for parliamentary business.
1. During the audit period, the Senator travelled to Nova Scotia on six occasions, sometimes with his spouse. According to the travel claims, the stated purpose of the travel was parliamentary business, but the actual final destination was not provided. The Senator stated that, for the most part, he could not connect any one travel claim involving the Atlantic provinces to a specific legislative or policy initiative in the Senate. He attributed this travel to an interest in the region he held throughout his political life, including during his time serving in the Senate. He also stated that, while in the region, he stayed at his house in Nova Scotia whenever possible, especially during periods of parliamentary dissolution, prorogation, or extended recess. When we reviewed the Senator’s expense claims for the 2010–11 fiscal year, we noted that this travel pattern also occurred in that period. The Senate Administrative Rules state that every person who uses Senate resources is responsible to account for that use. Though the Senator was travelling to a personal residence in Cape Breton, we received no additional documentation or explanations for the purpose of these trips or the events that took place during them. On the basis of the information available, we determined that these expenses had not been incurred for parliamentary business. The cost of these trips in the audit period was $15,324.
2. On 21 September 2011, the Senator took a return trip from Ottawa to Toronto. The Senator stated that this travel claim was filed in error. The cost was $976.
The former Senator’s comments
The Auditor-General’s “Findings-Travel” summarizes the responses I gave in January 2015 to questions from the audit team as to 17 expense claims in fiscal year 2011–12. I gave these answers truthfully and to the best of my knowledge and recollection. The issue arising from the audit team’s analysis of six of these claims is whether each travel claim must relate to a specific event or to a parliamentary debate or initiative within the timeframe of the audit. With respect, a body of knowledge on public policy issues cannot be built up in this way, and so I have a different understanding and experience based on 32 years in the Senate. Long established procedures did not require that a paper trail be kept of senators’ activities while on travel status; such a rule would have presented other problems, to the extent that confidential discussions or sensitive issues were involved.
Anyway, the records of the Senate and of its committees from 1979 to my departure in 2011 contain my repeated interventions on all major issues affecting Atlantic Canada, as well as of eastern Ontario which I represented. I had considerable background on these issues long before coming to the Senate and followed them constantly while there. It should not be assumed that Senators are on holidays when the Senate or its committees are in recess.
I note that the Auditor-General has referred the items in question to the internal economy committee, and I would welcome the opportunity in due course to place my views on the record in that forum. As I had been several years in retirement, I did not have the opportunity to participate in the debate or to attend the Auditor-General’s briefings of senators in 2013.