N.S. minister to pay damage costs after son crashes leased government vehicle

Community Services Minister Judy Streatch said taxpayers will not be on the hook for repairs to the leased 2008 Ford Escape hybrid. Damage to the sports utility vehicle was still being assessed on Tuesday.

Streatch had earlier said her son Jordan, 17, was going to buy ice cream with his girlfriend at a store on Saturday when he ended up in a ditch near New Ross, N.S.

In explaining her decision to pay for the repairs herself, Streatch told reporters she didn't offer to pay on Monday because she misinterpreted the personal use premium under the government's insurance scheme.

She said she didn't know taxpayers would be left to foot the bill.

"I understand the way the insurance works now. ... It's not a typical insurance policy whereby a nameless company is responsible, it is the taxpayers and I don't expect that to be the case," said Streatch. "I will reimburse for those costs."

Streatch said she believed she was within the rules because she had checked with the department of transportation through her secretary and was told her son could drive the SUV.

But Transport Minister Murray Scott said his cabinet colleague did not have proper authorization because she needed written permission under the government's policy on the use of leased vehicles.

He said she was not alone when it comes to skirting the rules.

"I don't think the policy has been explained enough to enough people," said Scott.

He intends to review the policy and release the results publicly.

"The message is that there's a policy that none of us have been following, that I don't even know if everybody was aware of," said Scott. "Now the job is to make sure that all those in government ... are well aware of what the policy is and they adhere to it."

NDP house leader Frank Corbett said that any review would have to clear up ambiguities around who is allowed to drive government vehicles.

He said Streatch has done the right thing by paying the bill.

"I don't dispute that ministers of the Crown should have vehicles, but they have to have certain parameters around them and they shouldn't be for family members to go to a convenience store," said Corbett.

Streatch was asked why she didn't tell her son to use the family's vehicle instead.

"We just made the decision, it was just a non-thinker," she said. "We thought we were within the policy and he took that vehicle."

It's the second time the Conservative government has been embarrassed by an incident involving a cabinet minister's vehicle.

In November 2006 former human resources minister Ernie Fage was involved in a fender-bender in downtown Halifax.

Fage was later convicted of fleeing the scene of an accident and fined $920.