Monday, November 1, 2010

Who Paid For Duceppe's Washington Adventure?

In my piece  Idiot Abroad - Gilles Duceppe in Washington a reader commented;
"For the love of God, please tell me that we, the tax payers, didn't pay for this nonsense." -Anonymous
Err......Sorry. Yes, taxpayers did fit foot the bill.

In fact almost every penny the Bloc Quebecois spends comes directly from taxpayers across the country.
While Quebeckers like to vote for the BQ, they aren't particularly eager to support them financially.

The party manged to raise just a little over $600,000 dollars, a pitiful amount considering that 1.4 million people voted for the party in the last election. In fact, it averages out to just about 44¢ in donation per voter. Compare that to the Conservative party, which received over 5 million votes and collected over $30 million in donations, or about $6 dollars per voter, 15 times more than the Bloc.

It's lucky for the Bloc that the federal government subsidizes each political party to the tune of $2 per vote received, otherwise the party would be broke. And so, the Bloc received a direct subsidy to the tune of  $2.75 million, courtesy of Canadian taxpayers.

Each of the forty-nine Bloc Quebecois members of Parliament chalked up close to $300,000 in reimbursed office expenses for an additional $15 million dollars in taxpayer generated funds. 

Of course all of this doesn't include free postage or airfare for travel between Ottawa and the members home riding, which is charged to the general House Administration central budget.

The party also benefits from research funds provided by Parliament.

Mr. Duceppe himself, as party leader is entitled to additional perks and when all is said and done, it amounts to  something close to $500,000,  paid for by you and me.
Gilles, You're welcome!

As for travel to Washington, this is a completely reimbursable expense, including airfare.
(5)  TRAVEL
(a) each Member is allowed a maximum of 64 return trips each fiscal year between Ottawa and their constituency and other parts of Canada (30 return trips on a prorated basis for all Members elected on October 14, 2008) Four (4) of these trips can also be used to travel to Washington, D.C., and the point of departure must be Ottawa, the Member’s constituency or the American border airport closest to their
constituency.  Opposition Party Leaders are entitled to an additional 16 return trips for a total of 80 return trips (7 return trips on a prorated basis for Opposition Party Leaders elected on October 14, 2008 for a total of 37 return trips.
Of course the taxpayer largess that the Bloc benefits from doesn't stop the party from sniping at the Conservatives. In a case of the  'pot calling the kettle black,' Bloc MP Pierre Paquette blasted the Prime Minister for using taxpayer money for partisan ends;
"Paquette said that under Harper, the PMO's taxpayer-funded budget is designed to "serve the interests of the Conservative party" and that the extra communications staff are hired for "propaganda and information control." LINK
Of the four federal leaders Duceppe spent $482k, second only to NDP leader Jack Layton who spent a whopping $629k. Prime Minister Harper's spending as an MP, totalled $281k and Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff spent a paltry $57k. LINK 
You can see a report of all spending by federal politicians here
Of the Bloc's 49 members of Parliament, over half have already qualified for their pension and  another half dozen will qualify in two years. One of the principle reasons that the opposition did not bring down the government last year was because  seventy-four MPs, having been first elected in 2004,  needed another couple of months to qualify for their pensions. Parliamentarians vest after just six years.
Some Bloc MPs have been in Parliament since the early nineties and as such will earn over one hundred thousand dollars a year when they turn fifty-five!
"It's more generous than almost any plan that anybody can find in existence in Canada, absent of a CEO of a major corporation," said Kevin Gaudet, federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. LINK
I wonder if Mr Duceppe and other Bloc members who have now qualified for this pension expect to collect it once Quebec is independent? ...Hmmm 

Goood country Canada!!!

21 comments:

  1. Good morning Editor, thanks for another amazing article about the world of les petits kébékuà...
    Unfortunately anglophone and allophone taxpayers have to pay for the non-sense set up by les petits kébékuà who should be paying for their own rubbish anyway.

    Allophone ++

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  2. Mississauga Guy said...

    These BQ separatists are laughing and having the time of their lives. They do nothing but provoke parliament and get very, very well paid for doing so. Quite a lucrative make-work project started by Bouchard. Speak of the devil, Bouchard is collecting an MP and MNA pension AND working for a high profile law firm. Talk about triple dipping!

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  3. Allo++

    Can you cut the "petits kebekua" thing, please? I'd really appreciate it.

    A lot of Francophones are in the same boat as Allo-/Anglophones.

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  4. Really, Adski? Where are these Francophones "who are in the same boat as Allo-/Anglophones"?
    Sure: start paying taxes, stop winging, stop making Montreal a miserable city where English is forbidden, stop dragging us down with all that rubbish about "Québec nation et langue française" and then we will talk about cutting "petits kebekua" thing.

    Allophone ++

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  5. and by the way, the message to be conveyed is NOT "We hate Quebec" or "We hate Francophones" or "Vous êtes vous, nous sommes nous". The message is "We want to work together" or "We want free choice to speak English and-or French" or "We want to build something constructive together".
    As an allophone I really want to it!

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  6. ''"We want free choice to speak English and-or French" Ok, choisissez le français et après l'anglais (comme troisième langue), si vous habitez au Québec.

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  7. My message is: let's accept reality and move on. The idea of one unified nation has to be put to rest: Canada consists of two distinct nations, English one and French one, and will always be a federation of two nations, with a minority nation and a majority nation. This paradigm will be gradually undergoing a change due to large scale immigration, so the English-French-other balance will be changing.

    This is reality. So let's stop tilting at windmills, and here I am especially looking in the direction of Quebec nationalists, whom I’d like to ask to stop meddling in other people's lives the way they have been doing for the past 40 years. Stop trying to bilingualise the unilingual Canada and de-bilingualise the bilingual Quebec. Stop trying to make everyone in Quebec into your image. Accept diversity and learn to cohabit with people different than you – after all, you are surrounded with them on 3 sides. And accept that unfortunately, you are a minority - in both this country and on this continent. And finally get it in your heads that creating a country in which you will be a majority will cost you – not only economically, but also linguistically. The value of language is tied to the strength of the economy. By turning this place into an economical backwater, you’ll reduce the impact of your language to zero. And the Americans will then come and eat you up for lunch.

    Quebec nationalists, please, get a grip. Your chasing of an illusion has caused this country harm. People are now tired. Stop. Get a life. Live and let live. Please... f**k off already.

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  8. Duceppe is a parasite just as all the the BQ. Of course the taxpayer pays for everything for him and his cronies. Interesting that Duceppe and Layton have the highest expenses of the four leaders (read no fiscal responsibility) The people who support Duceppe and the BQ are also "backsliders" when one looks at the paltry amount of money received by the BQ in fundraising within Quebec. Essentially without the toonie per vote Duceppe and his band of idiots would be a sunken ship.

    Anyways, Quebec should separate and take good old Gilles and the rest of the french politicians and bureaucrats with them. They do nothing but denigrate Canada and are not to be trusted. Quebec is nothing more than a ball and chain to the ROC.

    Makes me sick to my stomach to see english politicians in Ottawa (including SH) speaking broken and badly accented french as an appeasement to the whining Quebecois who themselves practice open discrimination against anglos. Canada is 90% english and the polticians should end this stupid charade.

    If Quebec takes their leave, then we can dispense with all this BS which is only getting worse in the Country.

    22% of the population and 90% of the problems in the Country. Hardly worth it, is it?

    Bottom line, the french in Quebec, hate anglos and the ROC due to petty jealousies as they know themselves they are for the most part an unproductive lot with a culture and language which is steadily declining. Time to say Goodbye, before these self serving idiots take us all down the same road to poverty, debt and corruption.

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  9. Quebec is not going anywhere and all these tax sucking scum (politicians…) bags know it.

    They make their living foaming at the mouth, telling lies, spinning stories…bad English speakers this, bad English speakers that…blah, blah, blah, spin, spin, spin…all the way to the bank. This goes on in the provincial legislature in Kenec city as well as Ottawa. Just a daily dose of spin, lies, propaganda, revisionist BS. Very expensive indeed.

    These people are the most dishonest, corrupt people in the country. They know exactly what they doing and don’t care one bit. I don’t know how they live with themselves…Just more partisan BS, every day.

    Wake up people. Don’t vote for any of these lying scum bags any more.

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  10. In at least half of the countries of the world, the Bloc Heads would be in prison for treason. In Canada, we give them expense accounts and grotesquely generous pensions. What a bunch of idiots we are.

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  11. I think your being petty here. The Quebecois pay taxes too. In any case all the expenses you mentioned would be charged whether or not the members of parliament in question were m.p.'s from the Bloc, or the liberals, etc. The Toronto guy.

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  12. Mississauga Guy said...

    adski, you wrote: "This paradigm will be gradually undergoing a change due to large scale immigration, so the English-French-other balance will be changing."

    Would you care to elaborate on what this paradigm shift is as you see it? I'd certainly like to know and I imagine other readers of this blog would as well.

    You also wrote: "Stop trying to bilingualise the unilingual Canada and de-bilingualise the bilingual Quebec. Stop trying to make everyone in Quebec into your image."

    Ain't gonna happen, not no how! Charest is walking on eggs, bending over backwards, forwards, sideways and diagonally so as not to disappease the nationalists, otherwise when the Supreme Kangaroos ruled the way they did last year, Charest would have said let sleeping dogs lie, and the whole Bill 104 issue would have been put to bed.

    But noooooooooooooooooooo....not unlike inept Deputy Barney Fife from the old Andy Griffith Show, where Barney had a way of getting the whole little fictitious Town of Mayberry, NC, population 2.000 to embellish a little trivial incident into a whole rumpas pitting half the townsfolk against the other half. Makes for a good sitcom, but to make that into reality is a horse of a different colour!

    Charest has managed to do this with Bill 104 and its deciples, Bill 103, Bill 115 and what next? When Premier Goldilocks couldn't deal with the "Hérouxville debacle" he hid behind a Royal Commission on the thing costing Quebec taxpayers $5 million. Another big waste of the taxpayers' money! Thankfully Quebec had to foot the bill for that debacle because I in Ontario don't want ANY part of it!

    Too, adski, in agreement with Allophone++ @ 10:26AM, how are Anglophones and Allophones in the same boat as the «Québécois de veuille souche»?

    Finally, if you or any other readers have problems with Allo++ and his "les petits kébékuà", then either s--t or get off the pot!

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  13. Mississauga Guy weighs in again...

    Diogenes and Toronto Guy: I think the former has a good but sad point. We are idiots to allow this. Trying to undermine a people leading to the potential breakup of a country IS treason. It's disloyalty to the country, and Quebec has been this way especially the last 50 years, but beyond as well! Quebec nationalism existed before the Quiet Revolution in the likes of Lionel Groulx and a host of others much longer than my arm.

    Toronto Guy, this is not trivial. These treasonists are costing the taxpayer several million dollars that could be better spent on things like hunger within our borders, let alone the Third World. MPs get good salaries, even better pensions, expense accounts and a host of other perqs.

    The only reason I won't cry treason is because I badly want to see Quebec go now. They'll lose their French because NOBODY in North America will talk to them in French, you can only imagine what will happen to French in the Real Canada, and Americans won't kow-tow to you in French. Quebec WILL become a Third World country considering how in debt they are! Sixth largest according to Quebec's own Ministry of Finance.

    I reckon if we don't let go of Quebec before too long, their fiscal drag will drag the rest of us underwater. Non, merci!

    It's time for the Canadian majority to turn the tables on Quebec!

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  14. @adski,

    I'm so glad we have a Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler of Relevance (like you) who gets to decree for the rest of us what facts are or aren't important, what's nitpicking and what isn't and so on, and based on criteria the rest of us haven't devined yet since you seem to pull these pronouncements out of your butt.

    I personally am a little more interested in whether what people say is *true* and whether the claims people make support their overarching theses.

    And so let me just point out that your claim that Québec nationalists have sought to "bilingualize a unilingual Canada" is completely false. Rather, it was an anglophone-dominated Canada which tried to assimilate French Canadians and inferiorize their culture.

    Ditto for your surreal claim that "Canada will always be a federation of two nations." It is not a "federation of two nations" now. It was not created as a "federation of two nations" either, as you'll see if you consult its founding documents. And in addition to being false, it's also a rather hypocritical claim given your suggestion only a short while back that nobody should care what the Harper resolution recognizing the Québécois (and not Québec, nb)as a "nation in a united Canada" actually means.

    It's also not true that people who want sovereignty like me don't pay taxes, as a mentally defective visitor recently suggested. There's no box you can tick off on your tax form which gives you a tax exemption for being a sovereignist. We pay 50 cents of every tax dollar to the feds just like everybody else. We pay Don Cherry's bloated salary too, whether we like it or not. We pay for the campaign subsidies to Harper's party based on the votes they harvest throughout Canada. Ditto for the Libs and the New Hypocrite Party who voted for the Clarity Bill and the Trudeau constitution while claiming to support our right of self-determination.

    We pay for the CBC and Radio-Canada, who have in their mission statement to promote Canadian federalism, and which SRC is doing in collaboration with the self-declared federalist Desmarais media empire which controls 70% of the print media in our province, according to an "entente" which neither SRC nor Desmarais wanted us to know about. Perhaps this "entente" explains why Radio-Canada provides such detailed coverage of the labour dispute at the Journal de Montréal, and virtually no coverage of the Desmarais threat to close down La Presse altogether if the journalists don't buckle to their demands.

    We pay for the Alberta oil industry too even though our province doesn't import oil from there. According to that notorious separatist ideologue Stéphane Dion, the feds sank 40 billion$ of taxpayers' $ into the oil sands, and 14 billion$ of that came from Quebeckers. And that oil which we don't import but pay to extract has driven up the dollar a lot, killing 55k jobs here (and counting).

    Oh, but let me guess.. none of that is "relevant".

    Yes Sahib.

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  15. Bravo Jacques!Que dire de plus?

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  16. "It's also not true that people who want sovereignty like me don't pay taxes, as a mentally defective visitor recently suggested. There's no box you can tick off on your tax form which gives you a tax exemption for being a sovereignist. We pay 50 cents of every tax dollar to the feds just like everybody else."

    Now can you cheque the transfers back to Quebec from the feds to come up with a plus minus. In fact Quebec nearly gets every f'king dollar back in transfers (I am sure you know about the Quebec Tax Abatement issue) And then, a whopping 8.5 Billion in Equalization on top of it. Essentially , Quebec has paid for very little outside of Quebec.

    A full 13% of the Quebec provincial budget revenue is provided by Equalization payments. Lets not get started on the dairy subsidies and other subsidies levied into Quebec by the feds to keep you and your like quiet (aka Blackmail).

    On the issue of bilingualizing Canada, I agree, that it is not likely Quebec but an indirect response to the language issue in Quebec. This has resulted in huge amounts of money being spent on programs such as the OLA to provide french services in the ROC where they are not needed. I note that there was a lot of criticism coming from Quebec regarding the lack of french at the Vancouver Olympics. I suppose if those in Quebec were disinterested they would have kept their gogs shut about it.

    I am complete agreement with you..the sooner Quebec leaves the ROC the better is will be for the ROC. As for Quebec I could give a rats ass as I am totally recognizant of how Quebec has manipulated Ottawa over the years. Look at the the equalization formulae is fixed by selling hydro at reduced rates (read subsidies) to Quebec business and residents. This keeps revenues lower resulting in less income which qualifies Quebec for Equalization Payments. Seems that the rampant organized crime in Quebec has taught the administration a lot about extortion and fraud.

    Suggest you concentrate more on your favorite issue than argueing with anglos on this blog which accomplishes nothing towards your end.

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  17. @ blacque jacque shellacque:

    "the feds sank 40 billion$ of taxpayers' $ into the oil sands, and 14 billion$ of that came from Quebeckers."

    If Quebec did indeed contribute 14 billion dollars to the oil sands - and who knows if this is true - considering how you play around with figures, then it received its money back in less than 2 years. Quebec receives 8.5 billion dollars per year in transfer payments from the wealthy provinces...especially from Alberta.

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  18. I hope all Canadians pay for him !

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  19. ''une nation s’autodétermine…ou elle est déterminée par d’autres.''

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  20. Jacques: “Ditto for your surreal claim that "Canada will always be a federation of two nations." It is not a "federation of two nations" now. It was not created as a "federation of two nations" either, as you'll see if you consult its founding documents. And in addition to being false, it's also a rather hypocritical claim given your suggestion only a short while back that nobody should care what the Harper resolution recognizing the Québécois (and not Québec, nb)as a "nation in a united Canada" actually means.”

    Jacques, you do realize that in your zeal and passion, you are not making any sense whatsoever.

    My post was based on observation of reality – there are two main languages in Canada, one spoken by about 78% of the population, and one by 22%. The speakers of the 22% language are primarily located in one geographical area (Quebec). Also, on the continent (which matters most, as most people do not limit their personal and professional options to Canada only), the 22% language is further minortized into an insignificant 2%.

    Whether you classify the 2% / 22% group as a demographic group, a linguistic group, an ethnic group, or a NATION, is much less relevant. And yes, I used the term "two nations", but you can substitute that with "two linguistic groups".

    In the end, your “arguments” are as follows: I’m wrong because:
    1.Canada has been founded on different principles – on which you do not elaborate but instead refer me to the “founding documents”
    2.I scoffed at the feds’ inability to qualify the “Quebec nation”

    Notice that your 2 points have absolutely nothing to do with what I was saying and in no way relate to my description of simple demographic reality. Your points seem more like a sidetrack coupled with a tint of an ad hominem sentiment, something that seems to be your specialty.

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  21. Quebec receives 8.5 billion dollars per year in transfer payments from the wealthy provinces...especially from Alberta.

    Per Capita, quebec receive less than Manitoba...
    Get your facts straight.

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