Finance minister says “use it or lose it” advice never happened
Posted Feb 19, 2010 05:22:19 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The province’s finance minister is challenging comments made this week by ex-Bedford Tory Len Goucher about the MLA expense scandal.
Goucher claimed MLAs were urged to “use it or lose it” when it came to expenses money, an accusation Graham Steele says isn’t true.
Goucher’s taking heat for topping the list of most money spent on expenses. The auditor general’s report revealed his purchase of 11 computers, 12 printers, 5 cameras and four video recorders.
Goucher says he spent the money because of advice to “use it or lose it.”
One other former Tory MLA agrees with Goucher that that was the direction they received, but several others from all parties, including Finance Minister Graham Steele, say that’s not the case.
“Let’s be clear about this,” Steele said. “Nobody ever suggested that MLAs should spend money on any item whether they needed it or not simply to get up to their maximum.”
Steele’s also taking heat for suggesting the expenses spent by MLAs is a “drop in the bucket.”
He says he’s not trying to minimize the scandal.
“That’s not my attitude towards it at all,” he said. “People are angry and they should be angry because their money has been wasted, spent on things that should never have been bought with their money.”
He made the reference to compare the spending to the size of the deficit facing the province.
