MPs report the summary totals of their expenses once a year. You can review the data yourself [PDF] for the most recent year for which information is available – fiscal 2009, also known as the 12-month period ending on March 31, 2009. This is the only document provided by the Board of Internal Economy, the nine-MP committee that meets in secret to supervise the expenditure of more than $500 million a year associated with the operations of the House of Commons and the Library of Parliament.
What I've done is take the Member's Expenditure's Report and dumped the data in that PDF into a spreadsheet so that I can present some comparisons and analysis. This is one of several posts with some of those summaries and analyses.
Goods and Services Provided by the House of Commons: Travel outside constituencies
The central budget for the House of Commons may be charged by MPs for the following under 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 . Four 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 ; (b) while in travel status, each Member may be reimbursed for private or rented accommodation and for meals and incidental expenses up to the per diem rate, to a maximum of $25,092 per fiscal year.”
Because there was a general election in the middle of this fiscal year, not every MP served for the full fiscal year. Among those that did serve the entire 12 months, the average expenditure on MOB-Advertising was: $52,679
Here's the top 20 biggest-spending MPs in this category:
- Russ Hiebert (CPC) – South Surrey-White Rock-Cloverdale $214,360 (right)
- Jack Layton (NDP) – Toronto-Danforth $204,930
- Todd Russell (LPC) – Labrador $198,470
- Dennis Bevington (NDP) – Western Arctic $198,182
- Nathan Cullen (NDP) – Skeena-Bulkley Valley $194,333
- Jim Abbott (CPC) – Kootenay-Columbia $185,856
- Dominic LeBlanc (LPC) – Beauséjour $179,364
- Rodger Cuzner (LPC) – Cape Breton-Canso $177,140
- Rick Casson (CPC) – Lethbridge $174,578
- Chuck Strahl (CPC) – Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon $174,180
- Deepak Obhrai (CPC) – Calgary East $173,509
- Jim Prentice (CPC) – Calgary Centre-North $172,504
- James Lunney (CPC) – Nanaimo-Alberni $169,935
- Lynne Yelich (CPC) – Blackstrap $169,642
- Ujjal Dosanjh (LPC) – Vancouver South $169,004
- Scott Simms (LPC) – Bonavista-Gander-Grand Falls-Windsor $165,256
- Rob Clarke (CPC) – Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River $163,798
- Alex Atamanenko (NDP) – British Columbia Southern Interior $163,274
- Richard Harris (CPC) – Cariboo-Prince George $162,577
- Stockwell Day (CPC) – Okanagan-Coquihalla $158,821
And here's the bottom 20, starting with the MP who spent the least amount in this category: 
- Lawrence Cannon (CPC) – Pontiac $1,839 (right)
- Scott Reid (CPC) – Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington $5,341
- Gordon O'Connor (CPC) – Carleton-Mississippi Mills $6,503
- John Baird (CPC) – Ottawa West-Nepean $8,086
- Marcel Proulx (LPC) – Hull-Aylmer $8,609
- Pierre Poilievre (CPC) – Nepean-Carleton $10,239
- David McGuinty (LPC) – Ottawa South $12,056
- Royal Galipeau (CPC) – Ottawa-Orléans $13,618
- Paul Dewar (NDP) – Ottawa Centre $14,797
- Guy Lauzon (CPC) – Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry $15,561
- Peter Milliken (CPC) – Kingston and the Islands $17,515
- Mauril Bélanger (LPC) – Ottawa-Vanier $18,225
- Pierre Lemieux (CPC) – Glengarry-Prescott-Russell $18,440
- Réal Ménard (BQ) – Hochelaga $18,759
- Bernard Patry (CPC) – Pierrefonds-Dollard $22,889
- Richard Nadeau (BQ) – Gatineau $23,297
- Maria Mourani (CPC) – Ahuntsic $23,713
- Francine Lalonde (BQ) – La Pointe-de-l'Île $27,219
- Stephen Harper (CPC) – Calgary Southwest $27,492
- Robert Carrier (BQ) – Alfred-Pellan $27,868
I'm not really sure what this gives us. I mean of course MPs that live the furthest away (save Layton) or in the most remote locations are going to spend more on travel. It's a fact of life. What is this proving?
David, I think after all this work you are simply proving exactly what the MPs are saying. Without breaking down each category into some kind of meaningful detail, it is simply GIGO.
Russ Hiebert, on his website, has accused David Akin of not telling the entire story. I suggest that Russ Hiebert is not telling the entire story either.
Yes, the rules allow for the Member to have his wife and dependant children travel with him at taxpayers expense.
Did Mr. Hiebert do what almost all Canadian parents do when traveling by air with infant children i.e. hold them on their lap to save the cost of an additional ticket, or did the infants take their own seat at taxpayer's expense because “it's allowed”?
Maybe David could look into this or maybe Mr. Hiebert could clarify this for all Canadians