OTTAWA - If one is seeking to eliminate egregious expense filings and the associated 'culture of entitlement' within our federal government, the search need not go too deep before focusing squarely on the Senate.

According to the most recent data available, the Senate cost Canadian taxpayers over $80-million last year - interestingly, more than 25% of this went to cover 'expenses.' Considering Canadians would be hard-pressed to name one thing the Senate has done in the previous year, nearly $20-million on travel and expenses seems rather outrageous.

Of course, when John Baird stood up this week and blasted the bloated excess of our Senate it must be taken with a grain of salt. His job is not only to blow the trumpet of Senate reform, his real task in the House is to deflect attention from areas where his government has overspent. For example, we could afford several complete 'Senates' for the cost of one G20 gathering.

This, however, is only part of the story. Responsibility, transparency and the disclosure of expenses should not be limited to only the most expensive government undertakings. Accountability needs to be reinforced and bolstered in every area of our government; so, yes $80 million is only a drop in our federal government's slop bucket, but that is no less of a reason to pursue transparency.

There is no reasonable argument against providing transparency for expenses. Yet, the Senate is currently stalling and obfuscating these attempts. Is this not the "Chamber of sober second thought?" Then, surely they must see the value in such sober second thought.

There are some questions of how such oversight and transparency would be administered, but these procedural questions are not substantial enough to derail the entire initiative. Senators opposed to transparency and reform have mockingly questioned whether the Prime Minster would approve their expenses - or for Opposition Senators, would Ignatieff sort through their travel receipts?

Sharing the same sentiment, an additional layer of bureaucracy to monitor and oversee Senators' expenses would hardly be the answer. Taxpayers would agree that the creation of a new body or agency would not be an efficient way to tackle this problem - what is clearly needed is an internal commitment from the Senate.

With two-thirds of Canadians in favour of Senate reform - and more joining the movement every month - it would behoove the Senate to respond. The legitimacy of the body is already in question - sure, it has de jure authority, but in a democracy the granting of authority and legitimacy is a function of the people. At this point the Senate is largely an expensive joke to most Canadians - and I, for one, am not laughing any more.

While the Senate continues to work to protect its job-security and entitlements it will only continue to alienate Canadians. Even if they may not grasp it yet, the long-term effect of this is a Senate with much less importance.