Do we Need It: The $141 Million Senate Attendance Bill

FACT CHECK: Is Canada’s Unelected Senate a Waste of Taxpayer Money?


Following the major structural overhauls to the Parliament of Canada, the Senate, frequently referred to as the "Red Chamber" has come under intense public scrutiny. Online critics and political commentators frequently claim that the chamber is an expensive, unaccountable talking shop where appointed politicians collect massive salaries and gold-plated pensions without actually showing up to do their jobs.

Are these claims valid, or is the Senate a vital democratic safeguard performing necessary legislative oversight?

Senate Speaker Raymonde Gagne and her entourage spent nearly $900,000 travelling to New Zealand, Spain, Japan and all kinds of other places.

Remember: Senators are unelected. They don’t represent you. And they have no democratic mandate for things like negotiating with other countries. So it’s hard to imagine how Gagne can justify spending nearly a million dollars on travel expenses. We looked at the official government financial records, attendance registries, and legislative tracking to separate myth from reality. 

Here is the official Fact Check.

Claim 1: "The Senate is undemocratic because unelected senators routinely block laws passed by our elected Members of Parliament."

Verdict: FALSE

While the Senate technically holds the constitutional power to defeat any federal legislation, a strict democratic convention dictates that the unelected upper chamber must almost always defer to the elected will of the House of Commons.
  • The Data: Over the past decade, the Senate has blocked zero government bills passed by the House of Commons [iPolitics].
  • The Record: The Senate has not permanently killed an piece of government legislation in 30 years. The last time this occurred was in 1996 regarding Bill C-28 [sencanada.ca].
The Nuance: While the Senate does not block bills, its legislative pushback has significantly intensified since the 2016 reforms that turned it into a largely non-partisan, independent body. Over the past decade, the Senate has successfully delayed, altered, or attached major amendments to 10% to 15% of all House legislation [cbc.ca]. High-profile examples include forcing nearly 40 amendments onto the Cannabis Act (2018) and adding roughly 190 amendments to adjust regulatory hurdles in the Environmental Assessment Act (2019).

Claim 2: "The Senate costs Canadian taxpayers over $100 million every year."

Verdict: TRUE

Operating the upper chamber has become an increasingly expensive endeavour for Canadian taxpayers, with budgets expanding significantly over the last three decades.
    [1996 - 2014: Conservative/Liberal Eras]  --> ~ $45M to $90M annually
    [2015 - 2016: The Structural Low Point]   --> $74.5M (Massive vacancies)
    [2017 - 2026: Modern Independent Senate]   --> $114M to $126.7M+ annually
  • The Cumulative Cost: Over the past 30 years, running the Senate has cost Canadian taxpayers an estimated $2.3 billion to $2.5 billion in total.
  • The Annual Price Tag: The overall annual expense to cover the Senate's direct operational costs, individual senator entitlements, and institutional pension liabilities has officially reached $141.4 million [sencanada.ca].

Where does the money go?

Official Main Estimates and proactive disclosures reveal exactly how that annual $141.4 million is spent [sencanada.ca]:
  • Base Salaries: $19.4 million total ($184,800 base salary per year for each of the 105 senators).
  • Office Allowances & Perks: Up to $25.2 million total. Every individual senator gets an operating allowance of roughly $240,000 per year to spend on staff contracts, travel, specialized equipment, office supplies, and artwork rentals.
  • Gold-Plated Pensions: The government spends between $2.4 million and $3.5 million annually to fund the employer side of the Senate's pension plan. Senators qualify for an immediate, fully indexed lifetime pension after serving just six years. The average retired parliamentarian collects $66,960 annually.
  • The Price of Independence: The recent budget spike is a direct result of the 2016 "independent" overhaul. Because senators no longer belong to centralized political party caucuses, they can no longer share resources. Taxpayers must now fund completely independent research staff for each senator, alongside an expanded 400+ person administrative bureaucracy to keep the chamber functional.

Claim 3: "Most senators don't bother to show up to vote or attend legislative hearings."

Verdict: MOSTLY TRUE

While a small handful of senators maintain strong participation records, comprehensive media audits and official attendance logs show that widespread absenteeism is a systemic issue in the Red Chamber.
  • The Attendance Record: Out of 105 total seats, only eight senators hold a perfect attendance record [cbc.ca].
  • The Missing Quarter: On any given legislative vote, an average of 24% of all sitting senators are completely missing from the room [iPolitics]. Major national laws regularly pass with barely half the chamber present.
  • The "Sneak Away" Phenomenon: Senate insiders report a frequent practice where senators arrive at Parliament long enough to be marked "present" in the official register for the morning, securing their daily presence marker, before immediately leaving. This ghost-attendance is most rampant on Thursday mornings, as senators routinely leave early to catch flights home for the weekend, leaving the afternoon chamber virtually empty for crucial legislative votes.

The Absenteeism "Hall of Shame"

While former Senator Mike Duffy faced intense public backlash for missing roughly 50% of his committee hearings before his 2021 retirement, a core group of 19 current senators are performing well below Duffy's historical baselines, missing 40% or more of all chamber votes [iPolitics, cbc.ca].
The lowest participation records in the current Parliament include:
  • Senator Dawn Anderson (NT): 11.1% vote participation. (The lowest voting record in the entire chamber).
  • Senator Patrick Brazeau (QC): 16.7% vote participation. (Attributed to ongoing health and personal recovery struggles).
  • Senator Wanda Thomas Bernard (NS): 19.4% vote participation.
  • Senator Rose-May Poirier (NB): 25.0% vote participation. (Missing three-quarters of all votes).
  • Senator Pamela Wallin (SK): 44.4% vote participation.

Claim 4: "Senators face strict punishments and financial penalties if they skip work."

Verdict: FALSE

Under Canada's modern political framework, senators face virtually zero structural or political accountability for chronic absenteeism.
In the elected House of Commons, political parties employ "whips"—enforcers who police attendance and strip MPs of committee assignments or travel privileges if they skip votes. However, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s 2016 independent reforms effectively eliminated party whips in the Senate. Because senators are appointed, hold their seats securely until the mandatory retirement age of 75, and never have to face an election, there are zero political, financial, or public consequences for skipping hearings.

Final Fact Check Summary

The claim that the Senate is an expensive institution plagued by absenteeism is MOSTLY TRUE. While the Senate successfully performs its role as a reviewing chamber by amending 10% to 15% of all federal bills, it does so at an annual cost of $141.4 million to taxpayers, while routinely allowing a quarter of its members to skip active legislative votes with zero structural accountability.

Sources Used in This Fact Check:


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