Former Progressive Conservative leader Patrick Brown spent $292,451 — almost an entire year’s office budget for an MPP — in his final months at Queen’s Park.
According to documents from the Ontario Legislative Assembly’s finance department obtained by the Star, Brown submitted office and support staff expenses totalling that amount from the start of the fiscal year in April. The expenses include severance payments that continue to be paid out.
Brown did not run in the June 7 election, and he said his expenses in his final weeks include severance payments to long-time staff, as well as a mass “thank you” mail-out to constituents and two goodbye receptions in his Simcoe North riding.
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His expenditures are part of an incomplete list obtained by the Star that includes other non-returning MPPs.
MPPs have yearly office and support staff budgets of $299,000.
“I think it’s appropriate for people that have spent years working for you, that they are entitled to severances as outlined by the legislature,” Brown told the Star in a telephone interview Thursday, noting such payments continue into the next fiscal year.
He said one employee, who has been with him for years, is now a senior and “entitled to the maximum severance, which is just shy of a year.”
PC MPP Randy Hillier — who complained earlier this year to the province’s integrity commissioner about Brown — tweeted that “this new abuse of office, along with the malfeasance exposed by the integrity commissioner, demands a full and thorough investigation by the OPP. I once stated he was unfit to be an MPP, he is also unfit for any public office.”
Hillier later told reporters the office budget is “used to advance the interests of our constituents. It’s provided to us as a trust in order for us to do our job as MPPs ... He spent it all in that short period of time, knowing that he was not running for office again.”
He said the average expenditure for MPPs who didn’t return was $80,000.
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Hillier also questioned the severance payouts. “Patrick Brown was an MPP for just over two years,” he said. “How many long-term employees can you have when you weren’t even a long-term employer?”
Documents also obtained by the Star show Brown had 10 staffers — five of them hired in April on two-month contracts.
During his final weeks in office, Brown sat as an independent MPP after being forced to resign as head of the Progressive Conservatives over allegations of sexual improprieties involving young women. Brown has denied the allegations and is suing CTV for broadcasting the story last January.
The financial documents detail non-returning MPPs’ office and support staff expenses as of Sept. 30. They show that Brown spent $164,217 on staff and severance, plus $42,739 in future severance payments.
He paid $15,799 in rent for a constituency office, $53,271 on office operations and $16,426 on communications.
Other non-returning MPPs spent much less overall, including Liberals Yvan Baker at $124,766 and Jim Bradley at $41,012.
NDP MPP Sarah Campbell, who did not seek re-election June 7, is listed as having spent $79,994.
Brown said in the interview he had not seen the expense document obtained by the Star.
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With files from Rob Ferguson
Kristin
Rushowy is a Toronto-based reporter covering Ontario politics
for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @krushowy.
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