To the editor:
Submitting his “annual accountability report,” Conservative MP Dan Albas notes that total spending for his office in the riding and for the one in Ottawa including all staff, leases, advertising and travel, was $316,625 (MP Submits Finance Report Card, Nov 8 Capital News).
Contextualizing that to the spending of others, he points out that other B.C. MPs averaged $445,000 for the same costs.
Apparently wanting to rub it in on a partisan basis, Albas says NDP MP Alex Atamanenko spent a total of $516,131 on office expenditures.
What Albas failed to note is that in addition to his office in Ottawa, Atamanenko needs to run two offices in the riding of the B.C. Interior because the constituency cuts such a large swath. He also needs to travel far more widely than any MP who has an average sized riding.
In his annual accountability report, what Albas failed to disclose is that Atamanenko’s riding covers 26,248 square kilometers, while his own is 39 per cent that size.
Maria Tokarchuk,
president,
NDP Kelowna-Lake Country Riding
Association