Source: Toronto Star

Social Services Minister John Baird's office bills taxpayers for everything from a few Timbits to spending time at a popular watering hole, according to government documents.

Baird, whose ministry is responsible for Ontario's poor and disabled, along with 11 senior political staff spent an average of $930.95 a month over a 15-month period on food and drink — more than double the $448 basic monthly allowance for a single mother with one child.

Details of the minister's office expenses were obtained through Freedom of Information legislation.

Many of the larger dinner bills are from trendy restaurants and bars late into the evening hours but omit a specific list of what was consumed.

Rick Dykstra, Baird's former executive assistant, spent $200 on dinner one night in July, 2000 at the Bier Markt, a popular watering hole on the Esplanade in Toronto. The bill was paid at 10:10 p.m. and the expense later approved by Baird.

Taxpayers again picked a $180 tab at the Fiddlers Green pub on Wellesley St. E. It was described as a "working dinner," and once again Baird gave his okay.

On Feb. 10, 2000 Baird himself spent $213.93 on a "working dinner." Theexpense form shows he also authorized it but the receipt is illegible and does not name the restaurant.

A month earlier Baird went to Nami Express, a sushi restaurant on AdelaideSt. E. in Toronto and spent $170, including a $25 tip. The minister also approved that "dinner meeting" expense.

On another occasion, Bronwen Evans, a special policy adviser turned in an $11.07 receipt, which included Timbits at a cost of 48 cents.

Instead of buying inexpensive day-timers, Baird's office manager bought two leather bound daytimers from Danier Leather — one brown and the other black — at a cost of $66. Baird said they were on sale.

In May, 2000 taxpayers paid $66.67 for a desk accessory for a person who was leaving the ministry.

Baird's policy adviser Will Smith charged taxpayers for a $135 dinner meeting at the Bloor Street Diner that ended after midnight. Another time he expensed a $115 "working dinner" that didn't wrap up until 11:45 p.m.

In an interview, Baird said he did not specifically recall the dinners and said he and his staff put in more than 80 hours a week and take their work with them to these dinners.

"On occasion that's an acceptable procedure. I and my staff often work 80 or 85 hours a week," Baird said.

He said, however, he scrutinizes all expenses in his office and across the ministry. "We do our very best to ensure that claims are legitimate and properly filed and processed and that everything is in order," he said.

Baird insists he does everything he can to cut costs from eating at Wendy's to flying discount airlines.

But opposition critics say the minister's reputation for taking a hard line with welfare recipients and steadfastly refusing to increase benefits, which were cut by almost 22 per cent in 1995, flies in the face of his own spending habits.

Liberal MPP Michael Gravelle (Thunder Bay Superior North) said he found the office spending "absolutely shocking."

It is arrogance combined with insensitivity ... it is unbelievable for a minister, particularly with his responsibilities, being so brazen about spending taxpayers money in this fashion," said Gravelle, his party's social services critic.

New Democratic Party Leader Howard Hampton said: "It looks as if there is one rule for people who are poor and are forced to rely on social assistance, and quite another rule for the extravagant spending of the minister and his staff."

Baird has been a provocative social services minister, labelling the current benefit levels "generous."

"What taxpayers want, what taxpayers demand from our government is that we spend every dollar wisely and well," he told the Legislature on Oct. 11, 2001.

Touting the government's plan to introduce mandatory drug testing for welfare recipients, Baird cradled a handful of syringes, broadly hinting that some recipients were shooting their benefits up their arms in the form of drugs.

Over-all, Baird and his staff spent an average of $498.19 a month on hotel accommodations. That compares to the $325 a month that a single person on social assistance received for shelter allowance.

And after being named social services minister in 1999, Baird paid an image consultant $4,900 to help him learn how to answer media questions and conduct himself in front of the television cameras.

Copyright 1996-2002. Toronto Star Newspapers Limited

Go To Top

Back to DAWN Ontario homepage

This page was updated in April 11, 2002