Taxpayers money spent wisely and the cost of protecting a rectal orifice

PMO hired three law firms to handle RCMP investigation into $90,000 cheque from Nigel Wright to Mike Duffy

The prime minister’s office has hired three law firms to provide legal advice to current and former employees in relation to the RCMP investigation of former chief of staff Nigel Wright’s $90,000 payment to Mike Duffy.

The PMO didn’t provide an estimate of the cost of the legal fees, but they are likely to be steep. The lead lawyer on the file, Bay Street litigator Robert Staley, a partner at Bennet Jones, is said to bill in the $900-an-hour range.

The other firms are Miller Thompson, and Caroll and Wallace.

Fasken Martineau, the firm where Wright’s lawyer, Peter Mantas, works, is not on the list, which suggests Wright may have chosen to pay his own legal bills.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/11/29/pmo-hired-three-law-firms-to-handle-rcmp-investigation-into-90000-cheque-from-nigel-wright-to-mike-duffy/

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PM’s security squad racked up more than $23 million in cost overruns

The elite squad of RCMP officers that protects Prime Minister Stephen Harper has overspent its operating budget by more than $23 million since Harper became prime minister, iPolitics has learned.

While Harper publicly boasts of his government’s fiscal discipline and its cost cutting efforts, his government appears to have turned a blind eye to millions of dollars of cost overruns right under Harper’s own nose. Year after year, the Prime Minister Protection Detail has exceeded its budget — one year by more than 57 per cent.

Between 2005/06 and 2012/13, the RCMP’s operating budget for the personal protection of Harper and his family rose 79.5 per cent. However, the cost overruns resulted in the actual cost to taxpayers of protecting the prime ministerial family jumping 129 per cent during those years.

http://www.ipolitics.ca/2014/04/22/pms-elite-security-squad-racked-up-more-than-23-million-in-cost-overruns/