The Liberal minister in charge of cutting government spending says the Speaker of the B.C. legislature showed “bad judgment” by flying her husband to South Africa last year at taxpayers’ expense.
Core Review Minister Bill Bennett said he will investigate whether he has the authority to scrutinize spending by Speaker Linda Reid, his fellow MLAs and other members of the legislative assembly.
“Certainly, the last few days had me thinking about it,” he said.
Bennett made the comments following revelations that Reid and her husband, Sheldon Friesen, flew in business class, at taxpayers’ expense, to a parliamentary conference in South Africa last fall. Reid, a Liberal MLA, reimbursed taxpayers $5,528 for her husband’s ticket after the story broke Tuesday.
Last week, audits revealed that NDP MLA Jenny Kwan and her family took a number of trips at the expense of the Portland Housing Society, where her then-husband worked. Kwan said she thought her husband had covered his family’s costs personally. She reimbursed about $35,000 and took an unpaid leave from her work as an MLA.
Bennett said the incidents create a “lousy” perception of politicians by the public.
“All of us go into politics for public service,” he said.
“We go in to try to get things done and make the province a better place. It doesn’t matter what our ideology is, we all get into it for those reasons and this last while has been a real setback in terms of the credibility of politicians. And it’s unfortunate.”
Government house leader Mike de Jong said he supports more scrutiny of spending by politicians and the legislative assembly. But he said it would be inappropriate for a cabinet minister to head up such a review. “You want the oversight, you don’t want the cabinet or the premier’s office exercising executive control over the part of the budget that belongs to the whole assembly,” he said.
Meanwhile, NDP MLA Raj Chouhan announced that he will repay the cost of his wife’s $2,200 flight to South Africa last year for the same parliamentary conference.
Chouhan, the assistant deputy Speaker, said he offered to pay for his wife’s travel before the trip, but Reid advised against it.
“I was advised that as long as the total airfare is less than or equal to one business-class ticket then it would be fine,” he said.
Chouhan said he and his wife flew the “cheapest economy class” and sat in the last row of the plane. It’s unclear how Reid justified the purchase of two business-class flights for herself and her husband under the same policy.
Chouhan said he spoke with Reid again on Tuesday night and she told him the policy was still in place.
“I said, ‘Should I pay?’ The answer was, ‘No, you don’t have to pay.’ However, I don’t want to be a distraction, so I’m going to pay back the $2,200 economy fare of my wife.”
Reid has said the policy would be reviewed.
Bennett defended the practice of allowing MLAs’ spouses to travel within B.C. a few times a year at taxpayers’ expense, given the amount of time that MLAs spend away from their families. “I can sleep at night knowing that my wife gets to come to Victoria two or three times a year,” he said.
But he questioned taxpayers covering the cost of spouses to travel outside of B.C. or on premium tickets. “I’ve never bought a first-class ticket in my life and I’ve never bought one for my wife and neither has the public,” he said.
