The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling for important new transparency and accountability protections in the wake of numerous reports alleging wasteful spending by Ontario MPPs.

"Premier Doug Ford needs to make sure his MPPs pay taxpayers back the money and establish real reforms to make sure this doesn’t happen again," said Noah Jarvis, CTF Ontario Director. "That means giving taxpayers the transparency and accountability tools to root out politician waste and hold MPPs accountable to their constituents."

Several Progressive Conservative MPPs have been inappropriately billing taxpayers for dozens of hotel expenses in Toronto, despite living within 50 kilometres of Queen’s Park, according to recent reporting.

This includes former tourism minister Stan Cho who billed taxpayers for $16,203, MPP Hardeep Grewal who billed taxpayers $28,008, and Small Business Minister Nina Tangri who spent $18,976 on hotel costs since the 2022 election.

The CTF is calling on MPPs to prevent future waste by implementing transparency and accountability reforms.

MPPs and government ministers should be required to proactively disclose and publish itemized receipts for all expenses including but not limited to expenses for hospitality, travel, and food.

Alberta already requires its provincial politicians and government minsters to publish receipts for expenses online.

The Ford government must also reverse its recent changes to Ontario’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and allow Ontarians to request MPPs’ and ministers’ expense records.

CTF is also calling for the introduction of recall legislation that would allow voters in a riding to launch a petition to recall their MPP and trigger a byelection. Alberta and British Columbia already have recall laws.

Alberta requires 60 per cent of total votes cast in a riding to sign a petition to recall an MLA and trigger a byelection. British Columbia requires 40 per cent of registered voters in a riding to sign a recall petition to trigger a byelection.

"Ontarians are entitled to know how politicians are spending their money down to the last cent, so they should post the receipts and respect taxpayers right to get the paperwork through freedom-of-information requests," Jarvis said. "And when politicians get off track, it shouldn’t be up to party bigwigs to deal with it in the backrooms.

"Ultimately, politicians work for the people and voters should have the right to determine the consequences through recall legislation."