Office Operating Costs
MPs are allotted a budget for office lease, staffing costs, telephone, printing and travel costs. Hiebert made local headlines in spring 2010 for his parliamentary operating costs during the 2008/2009 fiscal year. His operating costs, tallied at $637,093, were second only to Stephen Fletcher, who spent $781,000. Fletcher, however, is a quadriplegic who spent about $330,000 for specialized office equipment, staff, and travel that allowed him to carry out his duties as a Member of Parliament.
In response to the concerns raised in the community Hiebert's operating costs were reduced substantially the following year (2009/2010) ranking his costs in the bottom 40% of BC MPs, and $55,000 less than either Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal, the top spending Surrey MP, and $110,000 less than Nathan Cullen, the top spending MP in British Columbia.
Read more about this topic: Russ Hiebert
Famous quotes containing the words office, operating and/or costs:
“The House of Lords, architecturally, is a magnificent room, and the dignity, quiet, and repose of the scene made me unwillingly acknowledge that the Senate of the United States might possibly improve its manners. Perhaps in our desire for simplicity, absence of title, or badge of office we may have thrown over too much.”
—M. E. W. Sherwood (1826–1903)
“I think there are innumerable gods. What we on earth call God is a little tribal God who has made an awful mess. Certainly forces operating through human consciousness control events.”
—William Burroughs (b. 1914)
“It is commonly said by farmers, that a good pear or apple costs no more time or pains to rear, than a poor one; so I would have no work of art, no speech, or action, or thought, or friend, but the best.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)