PMO denies Senate appointments on hold pending reform

A senior Conservative MP saidThursday thatthe prime minister will not be appointing senators until there is "substantial reform" to the Senate but a spokesman for Stephen Harper swiftly contradicted the claim, saying the preference remains appointing elected senators.

Appearing as the governments representative on a panel about the Senate expense scandal on CBC News Networks Power & Politics, Eve Adams, the parliamentary secretary to the minister of veterans affairs, said the prime minister was taking action to address the allegations.

"In fact, he will not be appointing other senators until there is substantial, very substantial reform to the Senate or if a province puts forward elected senators," she told host Evan Solomon. "So I think its very clear that the prime minister is taking this seriously."

But when asked for confirmation of the new position on appointments, the prime ministers director of communications Andrew MacDougall refuted the statement. "The prime minister has not said that," he wrote in an email to Power & Politics. "Our preference remains to appoint elected senators."

The Senate is currently dealing with reports ofquestionable expensesfrom several sitting senators.

Stephen Harper's governmenthasalready referred questionsabout its power to reform or abolish the Senate to the Supreme Court of Canada.