A London city councillor is looking to change what some members of council claim on their expenses.
Ward 12 Councillor Elizabeth Peloza brought forward a motion this week to remove home internet as an eligible council expense.
“Our government’s working group is reviewing council’s expense policies so I thought it was a great time to bring this motion forward,” she says.
“Looking at when these policies were implemented, home internet was rare, it was a luxury. Certainly in this day and age most people would already have home internet, and certainly a lot of streaming capabilities because we’re using other streaming services as well.”
She says she’s hoping to gain some traction to make council more responsible when it comes to using taxpayer money.
“I'm hoping we can review it and see what other municipalities are doing and if it's appropriate to follow suit,” Peloza says.
Last year six councillors, including past and current members, claimed a total of $1,620.24 in home internet expenses.
Peloza believes it’s a tricky situation.
“I think that's part of the question too is can you claim all of it? Can you claim part of it if you serve on other boards or commissions and you're doing work for them? Is that your council hat or is that your commission hat and agency hat? And certainly what your kids are using and would you have had an unlimited package anyway?”
Ward 6 Councillor Phil Squire says he’s on-board with the changes.
“I think it’s really important to understand that I have internet through the city and I have a tablet, I have a laptop and all of those are able to access my city internet from remote locations, so I’m able when I sit at home or I sit at some other place to actually use my city internet. So I don’t have a need to charge my home internet to the city,” Squire says,
He says it would be “inappropriate” and says claiming that kind of an extension doesn’t make sense to him.
“When I’m outside of this building my telephone accesses internet, anything I have can access city internet so I don’t want to be extending my expenses to things that I would use. For instance, I have the same approach to tickets to events or that sort of thing. I pay them out of my own pocket so that nobody can ever say, ‘Look you’re getting a personal benefit out of your political position. I think that’s the wise thing to do,” Squires says.
Peloza says the motion will go to the Corporate Services Committee next week and their recommendation will then go to the Governance Working Group.
