Shortly after our provincial politicians broke for summer recess in June, house leaders Mike de Jong (Liberal) and Mike Farnworth (NDP) agreed to have a new process in place to make MLA expenses more transparent “before the end of September.” Well September has come and gone, and still no process in place.
Recall the issue blew up when media reports revealed Ida Chong, MLA for Oak Bay—Gordon Head in Victoria was shown to have expensed almost $6,000 worth of food to taxpayers last year – without submitting any receipts.
You’ll have to excuse taxpayers if they’re a little ornery these days. An audit in Nova Scotia revealed MLAs expensing such nonsense as video games (and selling them for cash out of their homes). Across the pond, British MPs were even caught expensing private consumption goods – including a moat cleaning at a private residence.
BC taxpayers fund the activities of their provincial legislature, and as such should have access to detailed expense reporting for their MLAs. De Jong commented last spring that "Everything that is spent in these buildings, whether it is by ministries, ministers or MLAs is public money, and people expect to be able to see and judge how that money is being spent."
In addition, NDP House Leader, Mike Farnworth has agreed that greater transparency of expenses is a good idea, but he was not the least bit surprised with Ms. Chong’s $5,921 in food expenses.
“She’s claimed what’s allowed under the rules of the legislature of British Columbia, just like every other MLA in the province,” Farnworth said in July. His sentiment was echoed by Ms. Chong, who assured constituents – even as they expressed disgust over her actions – that she was only claiming what was allowable under the expense guidelines in place.
Public response has been quite clear that supposed “guideline-abiding” expenses like these are out-of-step with taxpayers’ expectations. In what other job can someone claim $6,000 in meals without submitting a single receipt, especially when one lives just a 20-minute drive from their place of work as Ms. Chong does? At a time when taxes have increased, and the province is running a deficit, it understandably doesn’t sit well with many voters.
Last week, Mr. Farnworth confirmed with this writer that the committee is still in the preliminary stages of planning and research for a new expensing format, and that next steps will be discussed at the committee’s next meeting. No estimated date of implementation could be given. So far, Mr. de Jong has not replied to this writer’s request for an update.
Of course all these “rule abiding” MLAs really need to do is simply put their expense receipts online. Messrs Farnworth and de Jong should check out how the City of Toronto has posted municipal-level salaries, budgets and itemized expenses on the web at
toronto.ca/city_council/salaries.htm. This is the taxpayer equivalent of a gold-standard for expense transparency and has resulted in fewer examples of foolish expenses like cappuccino makers, bottles of Aspirin, and bunny suits.
Posting MLA expenses online is an easy-to-implement solution that does not require any reports, rule changes or otherwise. Constituents can then judge for themselves the value for money MLAs are getting for their expenditures, and ultimately hold elected representatives accountable for how they choose to spend taxpayers’ dollars. Transparency breeds accountability.
Courtenay Vermeulen, Director of New Development
