Public accounts show feds spent more than $1B in out-of-court settlements
Despite the battalions of lawyers on the federal payroll, it seems Ottawa may need some new ones.
This year’s Public Accounts of Canada, released every fall by the Receiver General, show that in 2014, the federal government’s out-of-court legal settlements amounted to a record-breaking $1 billion.
The tally of annual departmental expenditures released Wednesday revealed that 94 per cent of that extravagant legal bill was divided almost evenly between two departments, Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development and the Department of National Defence. The remaining six per cent was divided by all the rest of the government, including a relatively paltry $556 doled out by the Senate.
The above numbers only illustrate claims settled out of court, not those determined by a judge or ex gratia payments by departments.
More troubling than this years’ shocking settlement bill is the trend that led to it.
READ MORE: http://www.ipolitics.ca/2014/10/30/public-accounts-show-feds-spent-more-than-1b-in-out-of-court-settlements/
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