MP Abbott’s expenses to half a million dollars

If you’ve ever wondered how much your member of parliament spends to do their job in the average year, and exactly what the money gets spent on, the answer lies within — sort of.

Every year the House of Commons releases a report which breaks down every MP’s spending into 10 tidy categories, including travel, advertising, printing, furniture improvement and telephone costs, along with a curious category labeled “other.”

Each MP’s expenses, including those of Kootenay-Columbia MP Jim Abbott, are divided between costs associated with the riding offices and services provided by the House of Commons for the Ottawa offices. An allotted amount of money — depending on the size of the riding — is budgeted for the riding office, while House services are not limited.

A British newspaper recently broke news that inappropriate spending was rampant among England’s cabinet ministers and backbenchers (twenty have since resigned or will soon retire) the Toronto Star newspaper recently polled a number of Canadian MPs to see what their “other” spending entailed. While four responded, many did not.

Curiously, the “other” expenses from all 308 Canadian MPs ranged from $2 to $314,542. Locally, Abbott claimed a total of $1,641 in “other” expenses provided by the House.

The rest of Abbott’s 2007-2008 expenses broke down as follows:

Member’s Office Budget

Staff and other expenses — $256,538
Travel — $16,164
Advertising — $6,401
Office Lease — $14,400

Goods and Services provided by the House

Travel — $154,585
Telephone — $12,884
Printing — $33,860
Office Supplies — $1,517
Constituency Office Furniture & Equipment — $3,898
Other — $1,641

View the full report, including budget allotments and total spending for every one of Canada’s MPs.

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