Fool us once Mr. Morneau, shame on you. Fool us twice, shame on us.
Finance minister Bill Morneau has the amazing ability to remember between breakfast and lunch more than $40,000 in expenses he should have paid. I am sorry those harpies in the conservative caucus are making his life difficult at the moment but it is one of the few times that they have been known to be right. Morneau’s ‘mea culpa’ is not acceptable. It can only come with his resignation.
As someone who has travelled to many parts of the world on behalf of a charity, I find the finance minister’s expenses are unconscionable. Those times my wife could come with me on some of my trips, her expenses were always separated and the wife and I paid them. That is the way it is done sir; not sometime in the future when you are appearing before a concerned parliamentary committee.
It is to be hoped that Mr. Morneau has a smart accountant. People in his financial category would often file an expense account for their expenses when travelling and working for the charity. What we would issue them in return was a charitable receipt for the donation. That was legal and above board. They got back some of their costs in the form of a tax refund.
While the Kielburgers might think their published salaries of $125,000 each from the WE charity are modest, I would really like to know what they get from the for-profit part of the their organizations and book royalties. As they are purported to be millionaires today, that should not be the purpose of a charity. That is not what the phrase “charity begins at home” means.
As for Bill Morneau, he has proved that he is neither suited nor worthy of the post of finance minister. His apologies are not accepted.
-30-
Copyright 2020 © Peter Lowry
Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]