2nd Ontario PC MPP received ‘allowance’ from party donors
The Ontario Progressive Conservative Party is facing questions over ethics after a second cabinet minister serving in the Ford government received an “MPP allowance” paid for by party donors.
On Tuesday, the Ontario NDP revealed that Mississauga East-Cooksville candidate Kaleed Rasheed, who served as the Associate Minister of Digital Government, was given a total of $23,000 in allowances from the PC riding association bank account.
According to public filings with Elections Ontario, Rasheed received $11,000 in 2019 and $12,000 in 2020 from the riding association while, at the same time, being paid more than $130,000 as an MPP and as chair of a legislative committee. The payments are simply listed as “MPP allowance” with no further breakdown of how those funds were used.
Rasheed, who was first elected in 2018 and is running for re-election, is the second PC MPP to have taken an allowance while serving as a cabinet minister.
Longtime PC MPP Lisa MacLeod, who most recently served in the Ford government as Minister of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries, received more than $44,000 over three years in the form of an allowance from her Ottawa-area riding association, public filings show.
According to constituency association annual return filings made publicly available on the Elections Ontario website, MacLeod received $18,200 for “MPP expenses and allowance” in 2018, another $16,727 for “MPP housing/exp allowance” in 2019, and $9,500 for “MPP allowance” in 2020 from the association.
In total, the filings suggest MacLeod received $44,427 in allowance from the constituency association between 2018 and 2020.
Read more: Nepean riding association gave Lisa MacLeod over $44K in ‘allowance,’ public filings show
In a statement to Global News, the PC party defended the allowances given to both MPPs, but did not answer questions about the ethical nature of the expenditures or whether the members would be expected to pay back the funds.
“All riding association expenses are approved by the local riding association executive, audited by a licensed auditor, and all audited financial statements are reviewed and approved by Elections Ontario,” said campaign spokesperson Ivana Yelich.
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