Brad Trost urges former Harper aide to repay $78K in moving expenses

OTTAWA – Conservative leadership candidate Brad Trost wants a key aide to former prime minister Stephen Harper to repay nearly $79,000 in moving expenses.

The Saskatchewan MP says Guy Giorno, who moved to Ottawa from Toronto to serve as chief of staff to Harper for two and a half years beginning in 2008, should repay some of the relocation expenses he received at the time so the Conservatives can continue to hold the Liberals to account on this issue.

READ MORE: Liberals fire back at Tories over history of costly relocation expenses

The Liberals came under fire last week when they disclosed that taxpayers shelled out $1.1 million to move about four dozen political staffers to Ottawa after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau won the election last fall.

WATCH: Liberals try to move on after moving costs scandal 

2:45 Liberals try to move on after moving costs scandal

That included $207,000 for top Trudeau aides Gerald Butts and Katie Telford, who have since said they will reimburse a combined total of about $65,000.

The Liberals then tried to turn the tables on the Conservatives by revealing that Harper’s office paid out almost $325,000 in relocation expenses for 29 staffers over nine years.

READ MORE: Trudeau sidesteps questions on $200,000 moving bill for top aides

Giorno says an independent third party determined his reimbursement and that the federal location program exists to make sure that employees – including public servants, the military and the RCMP – who have to move because of their jobs “are made whole financially.”