Canada

Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Conservative Sen. Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu waits for the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs committee to begin on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Wednesday Feb.1. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

An opposition MP says a media report on a Conservative senator's expense claims is part of a disturbing pattern that points to bigger problems at the institution.

New Democrat Charlie Angus says an article in Montreal's La Presse newspaper about Sen. Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu underscores that there isn't enough oversight of the upper chamber.

"There;s no other institution I know of in the world that allows you to walk out the door with 20-thousand dollars just on your word, so it raises questions, what else are they claiming," Angus said in an interview Saturday.

La Presse says Boisvenu has been living in Gatineau, Que., just outside Ottawa in recent months,”rather than at his primary residence in Sherbrooke, Que.

The newspaper says Boisvenu hasn't lived in their Sherbrooke condominium since he and his wife separated in February 2012, despite claiming more than $20,000 for housing in the past 12 months.