Dexter leads in staff salaries, services

Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter was the biggest spender in his caucus when it came to using constituency funds to help pay salaries for assistants and cover the costs of other services.

Figures released by the NDP caucus Thursday show Dexter spent more than $12,000 on staff and nearly $42,000 on other services such as snow removal and garbage disposal.

He had one full-time and two part-timer employees working for him. Dexter didn't pay any bonuses, so the $54,000 went to salaries alone. The numbers come from a list provided by the Speaker's Office outlining payments made from constituency funds between July 2006 and June 2009, when Dexter was the Opposition leader.

Deputy Premier Frank Corbett said the premier's expenses were not out of whack in his role as leader of the Opposition.

"It's a high volume office. He had extra staff because he was the leader of the Opposition, would have lots of calls from outside his constituency, and so the volume of work would have been high," he said Thursday.

In total, members of the NDP caucus spent roughly $198,000 on staff and a variety of services and expenses, including office cleaning, snow removal, garbage disposal and severance payments.

They say payments were made in this manner because they were directed by the Speaker's Office to use a contract for services, rather than a payroll deduction system that was introduced in 2007.

The next two highest spenders were Education Minister Marilyn More, who spent nearly $24,000, andFisheries Minister Sterling Belliveau, who spent $16,691.

"I happen to have a very high needs office," More said. "A lot of constituents come in and so I had to make sure that I had the staff available to serve them."

Belliveau explained his expenditures this way.

"To me the justification is we have a busy office. I have two offices in Shelburne County which is a large geographical area," he said.

Finance Minister Graham Steele was the mostfrugal with his constituency allowance account.

He spent just $550 over three years to pay for temporary help when his constituency assistant took vacation time or was off sick. He doesn't pay bonuses.

Both the Progressive Conservatives and the Liberals have decided not to release their lists of expenses.

The Tories said they have been advised not to release a list because "there are legal and ethical ramifications to releasing personal information."

"We respect that advice and the decision regarding release of the information remains with the individual MLA," the party said in a release.

Liberal Leader Stephen McNeil suggested the NDP is attempting to make it look like the other parties are trying to hide information.

"There is no looking good. You can play partisan politics, if you like. I think Nova Scotians are not looking at this as...," he said, trailing off. "There are no points to win."

McNeil said he may release the total figure spent by his MLAs, but it's up to individual MLAs to say how much they gave their constituency assistants in bonuses or how much they paid for extra staff.

"You spend it, you defend it. That's the message I delivered to my members, and that's the message we continue to move, " McNeil said.

McNeil said he personally spent a total of $7,000 on bonuses and extra staff for his office.