Editor:

Is it really possible for the federal Conservative cabinet ministers to rack up $600,000 in overtime pay for limousine services, at the same time as they are cutting government services?

This kind of opulence seems obscene.

Picture this: a limousine picks up a cabinet minister, delivers him/her to the House of Commons, and then waits all day, all evening, to deliver them back home. It may occasion that the driver may have to drive the minister to another building on the Hill — two blocks away, or perhaps further.

Would it be a hardship to ask a secretary to phone for a cab? Or perhaps use one of the little shuttle buses that run continuously around the Parliamentary buildings?  And at the end of their work day when they are ready to go home, to speed dial on a mobile phone for a taxi or a limousine? Does it give the Ministers a feeling of importance to know there is a limousine waiting for them?

The mini scandal involving Minister Bev Oda changing hotels in London, England, to a distant and more luxurious one, and having a limousine deliver her to the conference, and bring her back to her hotel, at a cost of $1,000 a day, is just a continuation of what she would do in Ottawa.

Conservative budget cutting means cutting millions of Canadians budgets to pay for their senseless perks.

Vera Kristiansen

Madeira Park