The first seven months serving as a Canadian Senator were not what a foothills businessman was hoping for.
With three disgraced senators suspended from the upper chamber of parliament as a result of the recent expense scandal, Senator Scott Tannas said he hopes the senate can get down to work on reform.
Tannas supported a move to suspend senators Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin and Parick Brazeau without pay last week for breaking senate expense rules. They will be suspended for two years.
He said he believes the three senators broke the senate’s expense rules.
“It was clear to me when I reviewed the auditor’s reports and when I read the minutes of the committee of internal economy and listened to the senators defend themselves or advance their positions in the two-and-a-half weeks in the senate,” said Tannas, a life-long High River resident and founder of Western Financial Group.
Brazeau and Duffy were alleged to have broken rules for claiming senate housing allowances, while Wallin fell afoul of spending rules over her travel expenses.
The scandal grew earlier this year when it was revealed Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s former chief of staff Nigel Wright wrote a personal cheque to cover Duffy’s expenses.
When it comes to where Senator Duffy got the $90,000 to repay the illegitimate expenses, Tannas said what matters was the debt was repaid.
“That whole sideshow of where Mike Duffy got the $90,000, how he got it, in my view was just that,” he said. “That’s not something that I was focused on as I made my decisions. I was there to determine what Mike Duffy had done with respect to his role as a senator and his stewardship of public money.”
Tannas said it was money owed to Canadian taxpayers and needed to be repaid.
“The providence of that money was not for me to decide,” he said. “I’m glad he paid it back, he then needed to pay a price for his transgression, on top of the restitution.”
The scandal has brought increased calls for the abolition of the senate. The federal New Democrats support eliminating the senate and on Nov. 6 Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall introduced a motion in the province’s legislature calling for the abolition of the senate.
Tannas said there needs to be serious attempts to fix the senate before it’s eliminated.
“I think we have to have a serious effort at reforming it before we talk about abolition,” he said.
Senate reform was one of his top priorities when he ran as a candidate in Alberta’s senate election in 2012. Tannas said abolition should only be considered if genuine attempts at reform fail.
“If we can’t change it, then we do need to look at abolition,” he said.
Tannas added there are some changes that could be made without needing a constitutional amendment, such as setting term limits and having other provinces follow the Alberta model for electing senators.
He said the senate can also take steps on its own to make itself more accountable and transparent to Canadians.
“We have a conflict of interest code, but we need a code of conduct and a code of ethics, whatever you want to call it,” he said.
“Those are things we can collectively adopt, we don’t need constitutional change or somebody else’s permission.”
The senate is also working on a plan to publicize senators’ expenses, said Tannas.
“What we are doing right now and the money we are spending right now will be posted,” he said.
