Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter was the biggest spender in his caucus when it came to using constituency funds to help pay salaries for assistants and cover the costs of other services.

Figures released by the NDP caucus yesterday show Dexter spent a total of $54,000. About $12,000 of that was for seven or eight months salary for his constituency assistant. The other $42,000 went to paying part-time employees as well as some other services such as snow removal and garbage disposal.

The numbers come from a list provided by the Speaker’s office outlining payments made from constituency funds between July 2006 and June 2009, when Dexter was the Opposition leader.

“It’s a high-volume office. He has extra staff because he was the leader of the Opposition,” said Deputy Premier Frank Corbett, speaking for the premier while Dexter is away in Washington.

In total, members of the NDP caucus spent roughly $198,000 on staff and a variety of services and expenses, including office cleaning, snow removal, garbage disposal and severance payments.

The Liberals did not release specifics but said their caucus totalled $188,000. If accurate, that means the Conservatives spent the remaining $210,000.

MLAs say payments were made in this manner because they were directed by the Speaker’s office to use a contract for services, rather than a payroll deduction system that was introduced in 2007.

Finance Minister Graham Steele was the most parsimonious NDP member with his constituency allowance account, giving no payments from that pot of money to staff and spending only $550 on other services.

He said he couldn’t comment why his colleagues spent more.

“The thing you have to realize about being an MLA is we have no insight into what is going on in other offices. Every office is different, every office is unique,” said Steele.