Edmonton-McClung MLA David Xiao likes to drive. He likes to drive so much that we taxpayers have spent $29,135 dollars on “kilometer reimbursement" to cover his driving costs for 2008-2010.
Xiao was elected to his first term as a Member of the Legislative Assembly for Edmonton-McClung on March 3, 2008. In addition to his role as an MLA, David serves as the Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Transportation and is a member of the Cabinet Policy Committee on Finance.
In 2009-2010 Xiao billed the taxpayers for 35,182 kms and the year before that 31,796 kms. We still don’t know much he charged for 2010-2011 he won’t tell us and the Redford government won’t release the data.
But we do know that in those two years $29,135 of taxpayer money went to David for mileage (43.5 cents per Km).
How did he do it? Thanks to Google maps we will see if we can figure out how an Edmonton MLA managed to rack up so many kilometers.
His house is less than 3km from his constituency office, and his constituency office is less than 14 kms from the Legislature. So if David drove from home to his constituency office and then to the Legislature and back every day he would do just under 34Km per day.
Unfortunately 34 goes into 31796 over 930 times and there are less than 260 work days in a year.
Hmmm.
Maybe David went home for lunch every day…
and 2 coffee breaks…
every single working day of the year.
So 260 days times 3 trips times 34Kms is only 26,520km…
Hmm David must have taken the scenic route, after all Edmonton is such a lovely city.
We will ignore that he really only needs to go to the Legislature maybe 100 days a year and assume that he went there every day – 3 times.
Now, I know what you’re thinking… SO he fudged a bit on his mileage…
I mean the government only gives him 43.5 cents a kilometer and gas is expensive. This isn’t too too excessive.
There is just one problem…
You see David buys his premium gas using a government credit card. That’s right. He gets 40cents a km on top of FREE gas. The 66000 kms using premium gas cost the taxpayer --and not David-- another approximately $14,000 in those two years.
Oh, did I mention that the government also pays for his windshield washer fluid and oil changes…
It is time to stop the PC gravy train. It is time to vote Wildrose.
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Update: David Xiao for April 1, 2011 to March 31, 2012 billed $34,390 to the taxpayer for mileage. link
As far as I am aware the Alberta Legislature has not moved locations and remains in his riding.
10 comments:
If he was paid for driving to and from his place of work (ie, the legislature), then that is a SERIOUS taxable benefit and better be on his T4. Transportation to and from the regular place of work is not an allowable expense for anyone, and CRA really cracks down on the self-employed who try to claim it. Maybe a call to CRA to check some T4's;-)
It would be interesting to know how many ex PC mla still have their govt credit card. I know of one ex cabinet minister who used his card to fill up friends cars when he rode with them. It wasn't till a new owner of the gas station called him on it. I would suggest that all govt credit cards be cancelled on April 24, and reissued with strings attached.
More to the point, the combination of gas and mileage puts the allowance into the taxable benefit class for Rev Can purposes. Under the Rev Can rules, the allowable benefit is $0.52/km for the first 5000 km in a calendar year and $0.46/km for the remainder of the year, and is ONLY for travel AWAY from the employer's regular place of business. So going to and from the legislature is offside - that's strictly a personal expense.
Uh, yeah. Because the PA to the Minister of Transportation doesn't have to do any travel at all.
This is outrageous! An everyday 'Joe'small business guy, trying to claim this on his tax return, can't.
Become a MLA and it's apparently carte blanche.
These people are as arrogant and entitled as they come.It's time to let them know what it feels like to be unemployed in Alberta.
Anon at 9:46. You should look at his other reimbursements for food and lodging before trying to spin this.
You can't rent many rooms and eat many meals on $2,400. (2009-2010)
Hmmm must be using the "Jack Layton" expense calculator tm.
Makes you wonder how some people can justify some things. You’d think that when you’re already making an exceptionally good wage and benefits that you would not do things that would put it in jeopardy. But that’s not the way it works with this PC crew.
The reason has to be because “everyone’s doing it”, which speaks to how widespread and common place this sort of low-level corruption is within the PC Party. That is also an indicator of how much high-level corruption is going on behind closed doors.
Maybe he wasn't on the PC "do nothing get payed committee" and he needed the extra cash just to make ends meet.
Rob C
We have a lot of medical trips with our daughter. Alberta reimburses us 12¢ per km (for which we are thankful) but not even close to covering just gas. Yet the mla gets far more than actual costs, doesn't seem fair.
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