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Oxford MPP Investigates Expense List from the Housing Services Corporation

Ernie Hardeman writes an open letter after thousands of dollars has been spent on lavish trips and dinners

OXFORD COUNTY - Our local MPP wants answers after hearing about some questionable expenses from the former CEO of the Housing Services Corporation.

Ernie Hardeman has written an open letter to the Minister of Municipal Housing and Affairs Ted McMeekin asking for a formal investigation from the auditor general.
Hardeman tells Heart FM he got Reed's expenses through a freedom of information request and points out a couple of items he found very peculiar. " Like paying $8 dollars for bottles of water at a fancy restaurant, paying $400 for flannel shirts in Vancouver, flying to London England for $4,000, there's a whole litany of things they are spending on inappropriately without any regard for the dollars which are supposed to be earmarked for social housing."

Here is Hardeman's letter in it's entirety. 

Through a Freedom of Information request I obtained the expenses of Lindsey Reed, the former CEO of the Housing Services Corporation. As you know, every dollar that this organization spends is one that was intended to fund social housing.

 

There are numerous problems with these expenses including:

·      Thousands and thousands of dollars in missing receipts for meals and expenses including lunches with staff, a hotel bill for over $700 from Manchester, England and a charge from Taboo in Palm Beach, Florida.
·      Numerous receipts which include the purchase of alcohol including a hotel bill for over $1,200 which includes over $400 in food and alcohol charged to the room.
·      Almost $300 in flannel shirts purchased in Vancouver
·      Five trips to Europe, including a flight to England which cost $4,056.06
·      A bill for a $763 dinner in St John’s, Newfoundland described only as "promotional"
·      A restaurant bill with four still waters at $8 each
·      An expense for travel insurance that appears to be for a personal trip as it lasts 56 days
·      An expense claimed as parking for the Regeneration Forum while the receipt shows it’s an expense from a bar at the Novotel. Again, no detailed receipt was provided
·      Another receipt listed as parking which shows it’s from a bar/restaurant in the Vancouver Airport. Again, no detailed receipt is provided

Minister, these expenses should not have passed anyone’s inspection, but the third party review of Housing Services Corporation contracted by your Ministry fails to even mention these problems. Clearly a more detailed audit of the spending at Housing Services Corporation –past and present – is required. Therefore, I ask you to immediately write to the Provincial Auditor and ask her to investigate the Housing Services Corporation.

Given that social housing providers in Ontario are required to purchase natural gas and insurance through the Housing Services Corporation and that HSC funds their operation by marking up the cost of these services every dollar that is misspent is one that should have gone to social housing.

I also find it disturbing that the current staff at Housing Services Corporation have blacked out large sections of the expenses. Minister, if these questionable expenses were in the information they released, what are they hiding? It’s clear that the only way to ensure housing dollars are no longer wasted or misused is to have the Provincial Auditor open the books of this rogue organization.

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