How long should taxpayers expense former governor generals?

Don't bet on Clarkson anteing up for expenses: OUR OPINION
Posted Sunday, September 25, 2011

It wouldn't be so bad if it didn't cost so much for Canada to have a governor general.

But even the former governors general are expensive.

Adrienne Clarkson, who filled that post from 1999 until 2005, has billed taxpayers more than $500,000 in administrative costs since she left office.

Yes, that's right, since she stopped being governor general.

Public accounts documents show this expense is for secretarial help.

Clarkson reportedly receives as many as 200 letters a month, as well as 20 to 30 requests for speaking engagements, and other demands on her time.

And, apparently, covering administrative costs for activities related to her former role as governor general is an ongoing perk.

Which is just a nice way of saying that Clarkson will be billing Canadian taxpayers for her secretarial expenses for years to come.

These expenses started appearing in 2006-07 with a bill for $117,704. They jumped to $169,098 the next year, dropped to $155,579 in 2008-09 and then further to $155,875 in 2009-10.

Romeo LeBlanc, Canada's governor general from 1995 until 1999, is the only other former governor general to claim this type of expense -- $273,115 from 2007 to 2009.

Perhaps now that this information is public, Clarkson will be embarrassed into paying for her own secretarial expenses.

But don't bet on it.

When Clarkson was governor general, her office had an annual budget of $18.5 million and she was still criticized for overspending Canadian tax dollars.

She took a tour of Arctic nations in 2003, accompanied by 59 prominent Canadians, that was supposed to cost $1 million. Trouble was, it ended up costing five times that much.

Clarkson even planned a second Arctic excursion, but it was cancelled when taxpayers and opposition MPs got wind of it.

In the end, $400,000 was slashed from Clarkson's budget, a drop in her spending bucket, as it turned out.

Comparatively speaking, the $500,000 bill for secretarial expenses is small change for Ottawa, which spends in the tens of billions each year to provide federal services to Canadians.

But it's the principle that really matters, and that's not to diminish the position of governor general.

Queen Elizabeth II remains our queen and head of state. The governor general is the representative of the Queen in Canada.

The governor general represents Canada during state visits abroad and receives royal visitors, heads of state and foreign ambassadors at Rideau Hall and at the Citadelle of Quebec.

For many Canadians, the governor general is symbolic of this country's ties with England.

That's fine, but Clarkson has clearly abused the privileges that go with the office, before and after her time there.

And the federal governments, whether Liberal or Conservative, have allowed her to get away with it.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper should put a stop to it right now.

Times are becoming tougher for Canadians, as the economy teeters once again. Jobs are hard to find, good jobs even harder. Winter is coming and Canadians face even higher home heating bills.

How can any government possibly justify spending $500,000 on secretarial bills for a former governor general?

It cannot.

And Harper should end it now. Most Canadian households are trimming their expenses to better match revenues, and the least Ottawa can do is acknowledge that.

Adrienne Clarkson needs to be led away from the public trough.