Metro Vancouver directors head to Australia on fact-finding mission, days after retirement vote

Four members of the Metro Vancouver Board went on a fact-finding mission to Australia shortly after voting to give themselves a raise and a leaving allowance,

Port Coquitlam Mayor Greg Moore and New Westminster Mayor Jonathan Cote, along with city councillors from Surrey and Vancouver, travelled to Brisbane for four days of meetings with the South East Queensland Council of Mayors.

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Civic affairs columnist Mike Klassen questioned why Moore, who is not running in this year’s civic election, would go on such a trip when his tenure as mayor will be over by year’s end.

“These kinds of junkets are always questionable to begin with, but the fact that he’s doing it just before he’s about to leave office raises again some important questions that the people of Metro Vancouver and as well the city of Port Coquitlam would like to ask,” he said.

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Part of the rationale for the junket was to learn more about Brisbane’s light rail transit system.

However, Vivienne King, the person who used to run that system, is now the president and general manager of the B.C. Rapid Transit Company.

All international travel has to be approved by the Metro Vancouver board, which budgets $130,000 for such trips each year.

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Speaking to Global News last week via telephone from Queensland, Moore said this was a working holiday trip and that he had planned to visit the Great Barrier Reef after the meetings in Brisbane.

On Tuesday, the Metro Vancouver board announced it will reconsider the approval of a one-time retirement allowance and pay increase.