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The final step is to concede partial defeat, while championing the government’s commitment to transparency and leaving some details ambiguous. At this stage, it is crucial to only offer some reimbursement for now-unacceptable expenses, as to not totally undermine the legitimacy of the previous steps. With that in mind, Philpott can pledge to repay $3,700 for two days of limo service, but not pay back $3,815 for 20 trips to the airport until her department can review the tab. She should also refrain from explaining why these expenses were only deemed unreasonable after they were publicly revealed, in order to avoid prolonging the scandal. Likewise, Minister McKenna may call for a review of the $6,600 paid to a French photographer and admit that there may be ways to “reduce costs” for taxpayers.

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For Butts and Telford to embrace this final stage means vowing to pay back a total of $65,000 — a portion of the claim for land transfer tax and “personalized cash and incidentals” which the pair judged “unreasonable,” though they haven’t clarified why, exactly, it falls under that category, nor how it was calculated, nor when it became unreasonable. In their disclosure, Butts and Telford cited the Trudeau government’s “values of transparency and accountability,” while also revealing that aides in other departments won’t be asked to repay their own “personalized cash and incidentals” claims, which may or may not be similarly “unreasonable.”

It is also unclear whether Team Trudeau’s commitment to transparency shall henceforth apply before aides and ministers get caught expensing thousands of taxpayer dollars, or whether it will continue to be a belated act of partial contrition on the part of the government, following public exposure. In any case, these are the steps to a proper Liberal expense scandal: feel free to follow along next time.

National Post

Robyn Urback • rurback@nationalpost.com | robynurback