Expense transparency
Of all of BC’s 85 members of the Legislative Assembly, Liberal Party John Rustad, representative for Nechako Lakes, incurred the largest tab for travel expenses for the fiscal year.
Rustad’s bill came to $125,297 for the period between April 1, 2014 and March 31, 2015, according to Legislative Assembly expense reports released June 30. That works out to $10,441.42 per month or $343.27 per day. Rustad is minister of aboriginal relations and reconciliation.
The majority of his expenses, $85,560, were for general travel, which included accommodation, transportation and food, while travelling within the province but outside the MLA’s constituency. The total amount also includes capital city living allowances, in-constituency travel and travel outside the province or country.
As a comparison, Powell River-Sunshine Coast New Democratic Party MLA Nicholas Simons declared expenses of $69,676. Of that total for Simons, $12,000 was for accommodations in Victoria, $11,580 for in-constituency travel, $36,834 for general travel and $500 for travel authorized by the speaker of the house.
Other MLAs with relatively high expenses tend to be those representing large rural or remote communities and those serving as cabinet ministers.
Kootenay East MLA Bill Bennett, minister of energy and mines and also responsible for the province’s core review, had the second highest travel expenses at $116,993. The core review is an ongoing process by the provincial government to find cost savings within its operations.
Natural gas development minister Rich Coleman had travel expenses of $80,769, including $23,105 in ministerial out-of-province travel. Finance minister Michael de Jong had expenses of $81,472 while Shirley Bond, minister of jobs, tourism and skills training and minister responsible for labour, had expenses of $73,746.
On the NDP side, Doug Donaldson, MLA for Stikine, had expenses of $85,655, Jennifer Rice from North Coast had $62,927 and Michelle Mungall from Nelson-Creston had $54,397.
Premier Christy Clark’s travel expenses came to $73,213 with $33,445 of that coming from out-of-province/country travel. NDP leader John Horgan’s expenses were $42,811. The Green Party’s Andrew Weaver had expenses of $11,375.
Total travel expenses from all MLAs during the fiscal year was $4.03 million.
For more information, readers can go online.
Extra sailings
BC Ferries has announced extra sailings for Fridays and Sundays on its Horseshoe Bay - Langdale route starting Friday, July 10.
The additional sailings leave Langdale 10:05 am Fridays, Horseshoe Bay 11:10 am Fridays, Langdale 12:30 pm Sundays (except August 2 and September 6) and Horseshoe Bay 1:35 pm Sundays (except August 2 and September 6).
The full sailing schedule and more information is available online.
