Internal audit of Scheer’s expenses turns up money on school, clothes, minivan

OTTAWA — An internal audit of Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer’s expenses has found the outgoing party chief spent $18,000 a year on private parochial school for his children.

A senior Conservative source told The Canadian Press the special examination also determined Scheer spent party funds on housekeeping, clothes for his family, their minivan and beefed-up security.

The spending was documented by the party and approved, but not disclosed in an itemized way to the overseers of the party’s finances.

The Conservative Fund, as it is known, allocates money to the leader for partisan activities, and ordered the audit of that budget last year when it emerged some of the funds were going to what appeared to be personal costs.

Controversy around his spending was one the factors in Scheer’s announcement in December that he’d resign as leader as soon as his replacement was chosen.

That leadership race, however, is on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 2,2020.

The Canadian Press