# Top bureaucrat's lodging costs jump more than 30%



## the 48th regulator (12 Jan 2011)

http://www.ottawasun.com/news/canada/2011/01/11/16849161.html

Top bureaucrat's lodging costs jump more than 30% 

By JESSICA MURPHY, PARLIAMENTARY BUREAU

Last Updated: January 11, 2011 6:38pm


OTTAWA – At a time when bureaucrats are meant to be slashing costs, accommodation expenses for one deputy minister have
*Suzanne Tinning*, the top civil servant for Veterans Affairs Canada, spent $33,600 last year -- or $2,800 a month -- on an Ottawa crash pad, according to travel and hospitality expenses listed on the ministry website.
That's more than $9,000 more than Tinning, whose ministry is headquartered in Charlottetown, spent in 2009 when she was regularly staying in Ottawa hotels on government business.
That year, the deputy minister spent just over $24,500 on lodging, a price tag that included a handful of side trips to cities such as Halifax, Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto and Edmonton.
The switch is being billed as the cheaper option.
"It was determined that it was more cost effective to pay a flat monthly rate for accommodations versus a daily rate due to frequency and duration of requirements,” a Veterans Affairs spokeswoman said in an e-mail.
Tinning travels extensively to Ottawa – sometimes as often as four times a month.
Donald Leornardo, a veteran who runs an online forum for former members of the armed forces, said some of the money being spent by Tinning should be going to impoverished veterans.
"There's a big pile of money there and I want that money to go to the front line" he said. "If she's there that much maybe she should move."
The only other deputy minister from an agency headquartered outside Ottawa that had a similar arrangement was the former president of the Atlantic Canada Opportunity Agency. Between Oct. 2009 and Nov. 2010, Monique Collette's travel expenses showed a monthly rental fee of $2,500.
Copyright © 2011 Ottawa Sun All Rights Reserved


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## dogger1936 (12 Jan 2011)

Wow thats more money than I got for all my injuries from VAC. I travel to ottawa  once a week to see doctors....maybe I could get a place down there as well?


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