Retired general claims $72K in moving expenses (CTV)

[Lightguns]

It's a political football now, regardless of the regs or privacy.  The CPC needs to discredit Liberal Andy as a future MND or MFA.  Welcome to real politics, SIR!  No hiding now.  They will spin him to be a Liberal elitist taking money away from busking Cpls in Cold Lake!

 

[DAA]

Someone should tell the Minister - this, from CTV .....

Makes some sense on the final price tag, given the costs involved for both the purchase and sale of which there are NO limits other than with regard to property size.  I would assume that the previous property was comparable in price to the new purchase, so no wonder the big $$$.  Everything is proportional based on cost and cost is proportional based on location.

I saw a similar internal "whoop dee doo" almost 20 years ago, when the program first started out, was in it's infancy and the individual was claiming real estate and legal fees on the sale of a $600K home.  The first question asked was "What is a CF member doing, owning such an expensive home?"    :facepalm:

And the proportionate response, may be some sort of knee jerk reaction and all current CF members may very well pay the price of losing these benefits.

But still, at the end of the day, LGen Leslie is claiming an IPR, no different than any other CF member, regardless of rank is doing, so it begs the question of "How did they obtain information on his IPR relocation expenses, which probably weren't meant to be for public record?"  You could be next!

 

[Transporter]

As previously noted, it's political now. And regardless of whether LGen Leslie did everything completely within the rules or not, you can rest assured that this will be another benefit that will have the screws tightened on it, all in the name of taxpayer accountability and scoring cheap political points leading up to the next election.

 

[DAA]

As previously noted, it's political now. And regardless of whether LGen Leslie did everything completely within the rules or not, you can rest assured that this will be another benefit that will have the screws tightened on it, all in the name of taxpayer accountability and scoring cheap political points leading up to the next election.

No doubt but here is an off the cuff thought!

Will he throw the entire CF under the bus or will he navigate this minefield and come out on the higher political ground without doing that?

 

[blacktriangle]

Will he throw the entire CF under the bus or will he navigate this minefield and come out on the higher political ground without doing that?

Depends - are we taking bets?  >

 

[Transporter]

No doubt but here is an off the cuff thought!

Will he throw the entire CF under the bus or will he navigate this minefield and come out on the higher political ground without doing that?

I don't think Leslie will throw anyone under the bus (if that's what you're asking), as long as everything he claimed and received approval was above board. He can simply say he did nothing but follow the rules provided by TB and as administered by BRS. But it won't matter to the Cons. They will exploit it to the hilt and will take it a step further to change the rules, all so they can tell Joe public that they are in their corner when it comes to managing their hard-earned tax dollars.

 

[DAA]

Depends - are we taking bets?  >

Time will tell, it will all come out in the wash.

Chances are, some pundit assigned or volunteering for his campaign as an advisor will steer him in a direction which is compatible for election and based on the flavour of the electorate.  So the more the topic gains steam and the more the general population bites/feeds into this, the more he has to distance himself from it.

That's why they call it "Politics".

I don't think Leslie will throw anyone under the bus (if that's what you're asking), as long as everything he claimed and received approval was above board. He can simply say he did nothing but follow the rules provided by TB and as administered by BRS. But it won't matter to the Cons. They will exploit it to the hilt and will take it a step further to change the rules, all so they can tell Joe public that they are in their corner when it comes to managing their hard-earned tax dollars.

It's too late now, if in fact he is actually considering running a successful compaign as a Liberal.  Policy matters are out of his hands and into his advisors, no matter what he thinks.  It's all about votes.

 

[The Bread Guy]

It's a political football now, regardless of the regs or privacy.  The CPC needs to discredit Liberal Andy as a future MND or MFA.  Welcome to real politics, SIR!  No hiding now.  They will spin him to be a Liberal elitist taking money away from busking Cpls in Cold Lake!

:nod:

 

[Tibbson]

I'm curious as to how much of that cost is to pay the moving company. That's got to be a significant portion of it, especially if he's got a large amount of items in a large home. Full day pack, full day load, full day unload, etc.

And given the cost of his home (over $1 million) the real estate fees, being a percentage of the sale price, would account for another big chunk I'd think.

 

[PuckChaser]

And given the cost of his home (over $1 million) the real estate fees, being a percentage of the sale price, would account for another big chunk I'd think.

Absolutely. I really hope this comes back to bite the "gotcha" media with a review that says "Gen Leslie was moved in accordance with TBS policy, here's a breakdown of all the costs he never saw."

MSM is making it sound like he got moved, and then got a cheque for $72,000.

 

[George Wallace]

We are seeing an uproar over the 'farming out' of CAF medical records to an American owned/based company, and the lack of security/invasion of privacy entailed with those records being outside of DND.  Now we have the General's information leaked by someone at Brookefield Relocation Services.  Is there a much larger problem here than just the cost of General Leslie's move?  Are we facing some serious breaches in the control over our personal information by DND and the Government contracting out information management services?

 

[PuckChaser]

We are seeing an uproar over the 'farming out' of CAF medical records to an American owned/based company, and the lack of security/invasion of privacy entailed with those records being outside of DND.  Now we have the General's information leaked by someone at Brookefield Relocation Services.  Is there a much larger problem here than just the cost of General Leslie's move?  Are we facing some serious breaches in the control over our personal information by DND and the Government contracting out information management services?

Is the total cost to move someone ATI-able? I would think the individual breakdown would be at least Protected A, but total cost is a line item.

 

[Transporter]

Is the total cost to move someone ATI-able? I would think the individual breakdown would be at least Protected A, but total cost is a line item.

Something tells me we are about to find out.

 

[George Wallace]

Is the total cost to move someone ATI-able? I would think the individual breakdown would be at least Protected A, but total cost is a line item.

I would imagine it would be ATI-able to the member.  I would imagine that an ATI would have a lot of that information redacted if requested by someone other than the member.

 

[dapaterson]

We are seeing an uproar over the 'farming out' of CAF medical records to an American owned/based company, and the lack of security/invasion of privacy entailed with those records being outside of DND.

No.  We are not.  CAF medical records are held and maintained in-house.

VAC keeps paper records in a warehouse in Canada run by a private company.

  Now we have the General's information leaked by someone at Brookefield Relocation Services.

No.  We do not.  According to the MND, it was an ATI request.  Alternatively, if it was a leak, then BRS would not have all the information, since Brookfield does not manage the HG&E contract -they have no visibility on those costs.

Is there a much larger problem here than just the cost of General Leslie's move?  Are we facing some serious breaches in the control over our personal information by DND and the Government contracting out information management services?

Given the lack of a factual basis for your fist two claims...

 

[Monsoon]

Is the total cost to move someone ATI-able? I would think the individual breakdown would be at least Protected A, but total cost is a line item.

Not if you ask for it by name, but if you ask something like, "Please give me the cost of all retirement moves that occurred both from and to the Ottawa area in the month of XXX 2012" you'll end up with a very short list of results.

Leslie can claim that he didn't know what the expenses amounted to, but he would certainly know that a 2% seller's agent commission and a 2% buyer's agent commission would total $40K on a $1M house. It would appear given the timeline that he bought the new house after he landed his defence contractor gig at CGI, so it could be suggested that he moved to the bigger house his bigger salary could afford and saved himself the sale commissions by doing it through IRP.

Of course he was entitled to do that under the IRP policy, but he's in public life now and the rules are different: remember that David Dingwall a decade out of politics when the entitlements to which he was later entitled played a big role in Paul Martin's government losing power. The policy question is, "Should IRP, which is intended to provide a move back to a member's original hometown upon release be available for members wishing to move within the same local area?" and the political question is, "Should someone who has billed himself as a future MND use defence benefits to move himself from a $1M house to a bigger house he bought with his defence contractor money months after he retired from the military?" The optics ain't pretty.

My guess is that the CPC has as much to lose here in criticism of a TBS policy that existed under their mandate as the Liberals do through affiliation with a "fat-cat defence contractor". Since Steven Staples was quoted in the original article, I would guess this would have originated from the NDP, of which he was a former candidate.

 

[Jed]

We are seeing an uproar over the 'farming out' of CAF medical records to an American owned/based company, and the lack of security/invasion of privacy entailed with those records being outside of DND.  Now we have the General's information leaked by someone at Brookefield Relocation Services.  Is there a much larger problem here than just the cost of General Leslie's move?  Are we facing some serious breaches in the control over our personal information by DND and the Government contracting out information management services?

I'm not a big fan of the brass getting unfair entitlements, which may or may not be the case, but to me as noted above, this is the bigger problem.

 

[dapaterson]

I'm not a big fan of the brass getting unfair entitlements, which may or may not be the case, but to me as noted above, this is the bigger problem.

As previously stated, Brookfield does not have al the information about the cost of a move.  They therefore could not have leaked that information.

 

[Jed]

Oops! Should have read further down the thread.

 

[Tibbson]

Absolutely. I really hope this comes back to bite the "gotcha" media with a review that says "Gen Leslie was moved in accordance with TBS policy, here's a breakdown of all the costs he never saw."

MSM is making it sound like he got moved, and then got a cheque for $72,000.

Yep, it will be published on page 54 right next to the house league bowling scores.