Reid Strengthens Constituency Services - Increases Staff in Riding Team and Extends Office Hours

Napanee - Local MP Scott Reid announced today that he has completed the process of building a large and high-quality constituency staff to properly serve the riding of Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox & Addington.

The Scott Reid team has been completed by the addition of Anita Monk, who will be the second staff member available to serve the public at the Napanee office. With this change, it will be possible for office hours to be extended from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Monday to Friday, with the exception of Wednesdays, when the office will open at 10:00 am.

"This is a unique riding, and building a staff large enough to service it properly has not been easy," Reid explained. "In population terms it is larger than all but a handful of ridings in the entire country." Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington has a population of 113,000. The average Canadian riding has a population of under 100,000. "On top of this, our riding is geographically larger than Prince Edward Island."

Reid went on to note the unusual distribution of the population in the riding-most people live either in the north-eastern corner or in the south-western tip of the riding, with a lightly-populated area filling most of the space in between. In terms of driving distances, the trip from Carleton Place in the north to Napanee in the south takes approximately three full hours in good conditions.

Reid added: "No other riding in Canada has this unique combination of large population, vast geography, and population dispersal in two unconnected regions. So I knew from the moment that the new riding boundaries were announced, two years ago, that I could only service this riding if I were willing to open two offices (Napanee and Carleton Place), to staff both offices generously, and to use modern technology to supplement our top-quality people."

"What I've done, since being elected, is to open offices in the two heavily-populated corners of the riding, and to try to establish low-cost methods of contacting these two offices for the folks who live in parts of the riding that are remote from either office," he explained, drawing attention to the fact that he can be reached by email or toll-free at his office's 1-800 number.

Reid noted, however, that technology is not enough. "One of the real keys to success has been getting good-quality staff from all three of our riding's counties. Today, with the hiring of Anita Monk, from Lennox and Addington County, we have staff from each part of the riding. With Anita holding down the fort at the Napanee office, it will be possible for John Campsall, who is from Sharbot Lake at the centre of the riding, to travel to smaller and more isolated communities in order to provide key MP services to these constituents."

Each MP receives a maximum global budget for all constituency and Parliament Hill expenses. Reid indicated that as a result of these changes, he expects the staffing portion of his budget to be one of the highest in Canada. However, to offset the costs of spending as much of his budget on staff as he can, Reid explained that other expenditures, such as items like rent, office equipment, and travel, can be reduced to a minimum. As a result, he is expecting other portions of his budget, such as travel costs, to be among the lowest of all MPs across the country (including those in Eastern Ontario). In the event that any of these other expenses cause his overall expenses to run over the global budget that his office has been allocated, Reid also indicated that he would cover the additional expense out of his MP salary.

"We MPs get paid over $140,000 for what we do," Reid said. "My personal expenses just don't come anywhere close to consuming this amount, so it leaves a big surplus for me at the end of each year. Paying for a few constituency expenses out of my own pocket is a pretty small sacrifice for me, and if it makes it possible for me to be a better constituency representative, then so be it."

For more information or to speak with Mr. Reid
Please call (613) 257-8130 or (613) 947-2277.