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“While the rules were clear and we followed them, we both know that’s not always enough.”

The pair offered a detailed breakdown of their moving expenses, which totalled $126,669 for Butts and $80,382 for Telford. And they pledged to accept reimbursement only for “the actual cost” paid to third parties to move their families and their belongings to the nation’s capital.

Consequently, both will reimburse the government for something called “personal cash payout” — $23,373 for Telford and $20,299 for Butts.

“When we reviewed these costs, we decided that the amount called ’personalized cash payout,’ which is for miscellaneous moving expenses, is unreasonable,” they said.

Butts will further reimburse the bulk of the $25,141 for the land transfer tax associated with his family’s new Ottawa home, having decided it’s “unreasonable” to be reimbursed for the tax “over and above what would have been the cost of the tax on a home at the average house price in Ottawa for 2016.”

A PMO spokeswoman said Butts’ total reimbursement amounts to $41,618.

The Conservatives have been having a field day with the issue since the moving expenses were revealed by the government Monday in response to a written question from a Tory MP.

“We know that some people will think that any amount for relocation is unreasonable and that there never should have been such a policy in the first place,” says the statement, which also notes that the existing relocation policy was last updated by the previous Conservative government in 2011.