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It’s as if neither province has folks capable of keeping up with the Senate’s rigorous regimen.

The Deloitte report into Pamela Wallin’s expenses gives lie to the claim that her primary residence is in Saskatchewan. It reveals that she spent 35% of the time under review (January 2009-October 2012) in Toronto, where she has a residence, compared to 27% in Saskatchewan and only 22% of her time in Ottawa. At just 298 of 1,369 days, that means the actual business of sober second thinking is more of a hobby than a real job.

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The Senate committee overseeing an independent audit of Wallin’s expenses recommended Tuesday that she be ordered to repay $121,348 in travel expenses, of which she has already repaid $38,000, and that the matter be referred to the RCMP. Wallin said Monday she will repay the money.

On Tuesday, a Harper spokesman said the prime minister was referring to Wallin’s total travel expenses when he said in February he had looked at the numbers, not the specifics of the individual expense claims.

“He was not defending the appropriateness of individual expenses, because they were not known at that time. He was referring to the total amount in comparison to parliamentarians from the same region,” spokesman Carl Vallee said. “We expect that any inappropriate expenses will be repaid,” he added.

The Deloitte audit found that Wallin, who has left the Conservative caucus in May to sit as an independent, made a total of $532,508 in travel expense claims between January 2009 and September 2012.