Lisa Raitt vows to recover 'every single penny' from NDP mailings

One million eight hundred thousandfirst-class stamps do add up.

After the Board of Internal Economy determined NDP MPs misused their mailing privileges it requested that$1.17million be repaid.

Only a smallfraction of that, about $36,000, is owed to the House of Commons directly for envelopes and processing, whilethe rest is for whats called franking privileges, the free postage Canada Post is required under law to provide to MPs.

The Board of Internal Economyhas now declared these mailings to be not parliamentary functions,whicheffectively means the NDP ought to have paid postage on nearly twomillion letters sent to voters using MP mailing privileges.

Transport Minister Lisa Raitt, who is responsible for Canada Post, said during question period today that she spoke with DeepakChopra, the president and CEO of the Crown corporation, to ensure there would be a resolution with respect tomatter of the $1.13 million owed in mailing privileges.

"It is not acceptable to use House of Commons resources to fund party offices or to send out party mailouts. They know this, Mr. Speaker, and as a result I expect that they are going to pay back Canada Post.

"But I also expect that they'll refuse to pay back Canada Post and that's why today I spoke to the CEO of Canada Post to ensure that he understood what was happening. He does indeed.They take it very seriously and they will be developing a plan to deal with the situation," Raitt said.

Canada Post responds

A spokesmanfor Canada Post said, in a written statement sent to CBC News immediately after question period, thatit is examining what to do nextand promises to do so in a timely fashion.

"Canada Post is conducting a detailed review of all commercial and regulatory aspects of the decision by the Board of Internal Economy regarding the use of members franking privileges. This will be done in a timely manner and include compliance with the Canada Post Corporation Act, which contains the provisions for government mail," spokesmanJon Hamilton said in a statement.

New Democrats accused Raitt of political interference, but after question period, Raitttold reporters she did not tellCanada Post what to do.

"No directives have been given in this case, it was just a phone call to ensure that they understood the issue and that they would be looking into it. That's it," Raittsaid.

Earlier in the day, Raitt's office issued a statement to CBC News attributable to the minister which said she vowed to recover every penny from the NDP.

"I will be discussing with the head of Canada Post in the coming days for a report on their plan to recover these funds.Rest assured, every single penny that was misspent by the NDP will be paid back to hard-working Canadian taxpayers."