NDP still using parliamentary resources to pay for staff outside Ottawa

OTTAWA – The NDP is still using parliamentary resources to pay for staff working in Montreal, Quebec City and Toronto.

And NDP Leader Tom Mulcair says he intends to hire one more person to work in Saskatchewan.

However, the employees are now working from their homes, rather than in satellite offices paid for by the party.

Mulcair says the new arrangement is in line with the new rule adopted last month by the secretive, all-party board of internal economy, which oversees administration of the House of Commons.

In response to Liberal and Conservative complaints that the NDP was improperly using parliamentary resources to fund partisan activities, the board adopted a provisional bylaw prohibiting MPs from using their Commons budgets to pay staff who work out of premises “owned, leased or under the control of a political party.”

The board is continuing to investigate the NDP’s use of parliamentary resources to pay staff who work outside the parliamentary precinct or in MPs’ constituency offices.

Mulcair insists staff on the Commons payroll do not engage in partisan activity but Liberals and Conservatives have complained that they are essentially field organizers for the NDP.