The Senate has shut down a slush fund that gave thousands of dollars to Liberals over the past year, and at least one Conservative senator only learned of the fund recently, Â鶹´«Ã½ has learned.
"There are all these arrangements made are beyond the knowledge of the public, let alone people in the Senate," Marjory LeBreton, the government leader in the Senate, told Â鶹´«Ã½.
She said she discovered the fund last month -- only when the Liberal-dominated Senate decided to end the program.
The $300,000 yearly emergency fund was given to senators working on special projects, and who had run low on their own annual budgets.
Last year, four Liberal senators received a combined $42,500 from the fund, and this year, another two Liberal senators got a total of $42,500.
Sen. Serge Joyal received money both years, adding up to $25,000. He is writing a book on Canada-U.S. relations.
"It involves a lot of research. It can't be done overnight, of course," he said.
He added that the money "is not a very large budget, if you consider the involvement and the amount of work that is involved with that."
But Conservatives said they have a problem with the very idea of a rainy-day fund, especially one that was apparently not well known.
"I'm trying to throw open the windows and open the doors and let a little sunshine and fresh air get into the place," said LeBreton.
Liberals, however, countered that there was nothing hidden or improper about the fund, and that LeBreton's own senators were involved in the program.
"There are three or four of her senators that sit on that committee," said Liberal Sen. George Furey.
"Perhaps she should open a little light between her and them."
Sen. Jim Munson accused LeBreton of using the same bipartisan theatrics that have marked the House of Commons, to help Prime Minister Stephen Harper make Senate reform a campaign issue.
"It's all about taking the Senate down another notch so (Harper) can use it in an election campaign," said Munson.
With a report by CTV's David Akin in Ottawa
