Senator Mike Duffy leaves the courthouse after being cleared of bribery and fraud charges in Ottawa last week.Chris Wattie/Reuters
Those crafty senators. After years of controversy over the question of their primary and secondary residences – controversy that peaked last week with the acquittal of Senator Mike Duffy on 31 counts of fraud and breach of trust – they have found a way of washing their hands of the issue.
No longer do the Senate's rules refer to primary and secondary residences. Instead, we now have "Provincial/territorial residence" and "National Capital accommodation."
This wordplay is accompanied by requirements that should make it impossible for senators to live in one place while pretending to live in another. But it also ignores the fundamental issue of whether or not a senator must live primarily in the province they represent. Like we said, crafty.
Four years ago, the Senate defined "primary residence" as "the residence identified by the senator as his/her main residence and is situated in the province or territory represented by the senator."
A year later, "primary residence" was gone and we had this: "'Provincial/territorial residence' means the home of a senator that the senator has identified to the Senate for administrative purposes as his or her principal home within the province or territory for which he or she is appointed."
"Provincial/territorial residence" is a bureaucratic term related to the approval of expenses. Any obligation for a senator's actual home to be in the province represented by the senator is gone.
Still, it's an improvement, administratively speaking. If Mike Duffy wants to declare his PEI home as his "provincial/territorial residence" in order to be eligible for up to $24,000 a year in living expenses in his "National Capital accommodation," he will have to provide the Senate with a PEI driver's licence and health card, as well as a federal tax assessment, as proof of his island residency.
But that means the time he spends in PEI will likely be determined by the province's residency requirements for getting a health card (six months plus a day). Mr. Duffy will not be obliged to reside in PEI in order to represent the province in the Senate; he will do it so he can make expense claims. Under the Constitution, a senator only has to own property in the province they represent. If senators are willing to forego expenses, they can still live full-time in Ottawa and only visit their home province now and then.