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Suspended Senator spends $700k+ of Taxpayer's Money

Since Senator Raymond Lavigne was suspended from the Senate he has managed to spend over $700,000 of taxpayer's money.

An analysis of the Suspended Liberal Senator's spending from the Public Accounts by Canada News Desk shows that Lavigne collected $388,500 in salary between April 1, 2007 and March 31, 2010. He also racked up over $135,000 in travel bills, and about $180,000 in office expenses. For a total of $703,855 all while he has been banned from performing any duties in the Senate.

He does not attend sessions, does not go to events or functions, but is being paid and traveling on the taxpayers' dime.

Lavigne was thrown out of the Liberal Caucus due to allegations of fraud on June 8, 2006 and was charged on August 14, 2007 and which point he was suspended from the Senate.

What is fascinating is that since Lavigne has been suspended his travel costs have gone up. In each of the last three fiscal years he has managed to spend an average of $45,152.67 on travel, about double the $23,129 he averaged in the two years before (2005/2006 and 2006/2007). Since he represented Montreal as an MP and his Senate District is on the South Shore we wonder where exactly he is going that is costing the Canadian public $45,000 a year.

Of course these numbers only go to the end of March - since then he has still been collecting his $11,000 a month salary, and spending on office and travel expenses.

Below are the expenses of Senator Lavigne as published by the Public Accounts: