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The audit

Wallin’s final audit is scheduled for release on Aug. 13. The three-member executive of the internal economy committee, known as the steering committee, is scheduled to meet the evening of Aug. 12 to review her audit and draft a report with a response and recommendations. That report and the audit will be given to the full committee the morning of Aug. 13 before a scheduled meeting.

The audit and report, when finalized, will be tabled with the clerk of the Senate that afternoon, which make the documents public.

The housing issue

The Constitution states that senators must be “resident in the province” for which they are appointed. However, since being appointed to the Senate, there have been questions about whether Wallin met this qualification, with critics arguing that she does not because she spent years away from Saskatchewan. Wallin owns a home in Wadena, and has said she spent 168 days in Saskatchewan in 2012 as part of her argument that she is a resident of the province. Wallin’s lack of a provincial health card and voting records further inflamed questions about whether she met the constitutional residency requirements for senators.

As well, questions were also raised about her housing after it was shown that her home town was listed as Toronto on financial documents filed by Gluskin Sheff and Porter Airlines.

The Senate has never re-interpreted this meaning in a modern context. Questions have also been raised about whether Duffy meets the residency requirement.

What we don’t know

Whether the RCMP are planning to pursue charges against Wallin: In the lead-up to the release of spending audits on senators Mac Harb, Patrick Brazeau and Duffy, the RCMP’s sensitive investigations unit in Ottawa began collecting publicly available documents and information on the three senators as part of preparations for an official investigation. Court documents filed by investigators outline these actions, and experts suggest the Mounties are likely doing the same for Wallin.

The RCMP does not usually confirm or deny it is conducting an investigation, nor does it usually comment on the status of an investigation.

How early the committee was made aware of concerns with Wallin’s spending: The committee was purportedly told in the fall of 2012 about Wallin’s spending habits, and it was left to the steering committee to take care of it.

Apparently, then chairman Tkachuk didn’t take care of it to the full confidence of the other two members of the steering committee — senators Carolyn Stewart Olsen, a Conservative, and Liberal George Furey — and they agreed to order an audit.