British Columbia MLAs will begin publicly disclosing all travel and other related expenses starting this fall, a legislative committee announced late Tuesday afternoon as it promised a new era of openness and transparency.
“This will dramatically change things,” said Shane Simpson, a New Democratic Party MLA and a member of the six-MLA Legislative Assembly Management Committee.
“I don’t think we can talk ourselves out of things we’ve behaved ourselves into,” said Hogg, also a member of the LAMC, which oversees operation of the legislature and its finances.
Following a three-hour closed door meeting at the legislature, members of the until-now secretive committee vowed they will begin conducting most of their business in public.
“Future LAMC meetings will be open and structured in a manner similar to a select standing committee. Meetings will be recorded by Han-sard and will only be in camera when needed,” said LAMC chair and Speaker Bill Barisoff.
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“Meetings will be held quarterly or at the call of the chair should more discussions be required.”
That move alone is significant, given that LAMC has only held two very brief private meetings in the past year.
Tuesday’s announcement follows a damning report by Auditor-General John Doyle into legislative assembly finances, which found significant deficiencies in how expenses have been tracked and reported.
Doyle said the books were in such bad shape he could not yet tell if any money had gone missing.
He said the legislature did not have the necessary over-sight procedures in place, and that LAMC “does not appear to be actively involved in the legislative assembly’s operational activities.”
Heading into Tuesday’s meeting, Barisoff vowed to fix every issue the report raised.
“It is embarrassing, but we’re certainly in the process of trying to address all the findings of the auditor-general,” said Barisoff, also a Liberal MLA.
Asked why it took a public shaming to introduce public transparency to the commit-tee, members did not have an answer, but said they were glad to see the changes that have come as a result.
“It’s a gift horse. I’m just grateful it happened,” said committee member and NDP house leader John Horgan.
“Why did it take a crisis? That we can talk about in the history books. Today we’re making progress as a group and that’s a positive thing.”
On MLA expenses, Bari-soff said itemized claims will be posted online every three months staring this October.
“The expenses will be put online … and anybody wanting to look at that can look at the receipts,” he said.
Barisoff said the first disclosure will include expenses going back to this past April.
Until now, MLA expenses have been disclosed at the end of each fiscal year, and have only been presented as a total amount for each MLA.
Last fiscal year, MLAs charged more than $1.7 million in travel expenses.
The committee said it will also look to find ways MLAs can report the $119,000 they get to run their constituency offices, an item that cannot be reported now because of privacy concerns.
“The concern, of course, is the fact that individual members are individual contractors, so they don’t fall under the same rules as the legislative assembly,” said Barisoff, adding this means the wages of people employed by an MLA cannot be publicly disclosed.
Barisoff said the committee will work with Doyle and the province’s information and privacy commissioner to deter-mine how more information can be disclosed.
Barisoff said the committee will also contract two experts for a period of six months to “enhance financial controls at the legislature.”
He said the experts have yet to be named, but one will be from the office of the auditor-general, and the other from the office of the government’s comptroller-general.
Barisoff said the legislature has also created the position of executive financial officer.
These moves are all in addition to an internal audit the consulting firm Deloitte has been doing of the legislature since April.
The committee said it shared its recommendations via conference call with Doyle before making them public.
Doyle was in Australia and could not be reached for comment, but Barisoff said the auditor-general was “very positive” about the committee’s new direction.
Committee members said they hope the measures will help restore confidence with the public as well.
“One of the key issues around public trust is the issue of transparency and accountability. The first steps for us, and I believe in many ways the most important and compelling steps in what we’re doing is opening this process up, allowing a light to shine on the process and from that I think people will see how the operation works,” said Simpson.
“We clearly need to deal with the accounting failures of the system and that work will be done in bringing in this additional expertise.”
Horgan said he thinks the new moves will mean a significant culture shift for the once-secretive committee.
“I think as a group today we did a positive thing for our-selves, for our colleagues and for future MLAs,” he said.
“We have taken, in my view, enormous steps forward.”
LAMC will hold its first public meeting at the end of August.
MLA EXPENDITURES IN PERSPECTIVE
A comparison of three provinces assembled by The Sun using publicly available information.
BRITISH COLUMBIA
Average MLA travel (2011-12): $20,412
Average capital city living allowance per MLA (2011-12): $14,390
Average salary per MLA (2011-12, including ministerial pay): $118,151
ALBERTA
Average MLA travel (2010-11): $23,658
Average capital city living allowance per MLA (2010-11): $23,276
Average salary per MLA (2010-11, not including benefits, but including ministerial pay): $118,073
ONTARIO
Average MPP travel (2011-12): $14,336
Average capital city living allowance per MPP (2011-12): $10,732
Average salary per MPP (2011-12, including ministerial pay): $138,680
Sources: Ontario Public Sector Salary Disclosure, Ontario Individual Members’ Expenditures, Alberta Selected Payment Report for MLAs, B.C. Public Accounts Note: Travel numbers do not include expenses incurred by MLAs while travelling on ministerial business.
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