The release of the Speaker’s bombshell report yesterday has sent a shockwave across British Columbia. It identified a culture of entitlement and alleged a systemic pattern of fiscal wrongdoing in the BC Legislature. The report’s release will undoubtedly undermine public trust and frankly raises more questions than it has answered.

In releasing the report, the Legislative Assembly Management Committee unanimously approved four motions:

1. The Acting Clerk undertake to develop the scope and terms of a comprehensive financial audit, to address matters contained in the report by the Speaker, for the consideration and approval of the committee. Once the committee has approved the scope and terms of the audit, an Auditor General from another Canadian jurisdiction shall be invited to undertake the work. The resulting audit report shall be made public.
2. The Acting Clerk develop a framework for a workplace review of the Legislative Assembly departments, subject to criteria to be determined by the committee, in order to address matters raised in the report by the Speaker.
3. The committee urge all House Leaders to consider the serious allegations raised in the report by the Speaker, invite a written response by the Clerk and Sergeant-at-Arms by Friday, February 1, and determine what action, if any, the Legislative Assembly should take with respect to the motion adopted on November 20, 2018, regarding the Clerk and Sergeant-at-Arms.
4. The committee authorize the public release of the report by the Speaker.

The serious nature of these motions cannot be underestimated.

First, the committee will be inviting an auditor general from another province to undertake a comprehensive audit of Legislative finances. This unusual step bypasses British Columbia’s Office of the Auditor General.

Second, a framework will be set up for a workplace review. Presumably such a review is designed to ensure hiring policies and practices are put in place to protect workers from fear of retribution and unjust terminations (as raised repeatedly in the report).

Third, upon receiving a response from the Clerk and Sergeant at Arms, the committee will recommend to the Legislative Assembly a course of action. Presumably, this means they will recommend to the Assembly whether the Clerk and Sergeant at Arms should be reinstated, terminated, or continue on leave with or without pay. In light of the serious nature of the allegations in the report, it’s difficult for me to imagine any scenario that leads to the Clerk and Sergeant at Arms being reinstated.

But the story does not end here.

I’ve read the report through several times and I am at a lost as to who I can now trust in the BC Legislature. On page 14 of the report, the Deputy Sergeant at Arms is quoted as saying “I’m going to lose my job over this one”, referring to an alleged “theft” of more than $10,000 in liquor that he was aware of. The Deputy Sergeant at Arms, who is now serving as the Acting Sergeant at Arms, is also quoted on page 14 in alleging misappropriation of legislature funds by the Clerk to purchase a wood splitter. Furthermore, on page 16, questions arise as to whether or not there was a cover-up concerning alleged improper expense claims by a BC Liberal MLA.

I’m left wondering what, if any, financial oversight was present with respect to the approval of the outrageous expense claims detailed in the report.

Perhaps most disturbing of all are the questions that arise concerning the Clerk’s relationship to the BC Liberals.

On page 9, the Sergeant At Arms is quoted as suggesting that the Clerk was “not impartial and that he was in fact very close with the BC Liberal Party”.  Pages 15-17 of the report detail an alleged coverup of inappropriate expenses submitted by a BC Liberal MLA. The Clerk is quoted as saying that “I spoke with Kate and told her to rein Gary in and put a stop to this, otherwise we will all wear it”.  Later, the Deputy Clerk and Clerk of Committees is said to have told the speaker that the Clerk had gone to Vancouver to meet with Geoff Plant about how to “rein in Gary and ensure he wouldn’t be conducting investigations in the future”.  And then there are the meetings detailed in the tables spanning pages 36 to 38.

This table details 39 entries of in-province trips taken by the Clerk since March 2017 for individual meetings. Four of these meetings involved former BC Liberal Speaker Bill Barisoff; four were with former Premier Christy Clark (all of which occurred after she was no longer Premier); fourteen were with former BC Liberal MLA Geoff Plant; two were with Liberal MLA Mike de Jong; one was for a meeting at the Liberal party offices. The obvious questions that arise are: 1)  what were these meetings about?; 2) how were they justified as being associated with legislative business.

Another very concerning allegation appears on page 19 of the report. Here, the Clerk is quoted as saying: ‘that he had “so much dirt on the Liberals”  and that he could threaten to “stop paying their legal bills” or “quit paying their severance payments”’. Answers are clearly needed to more obvious questions that arise: 1) what dirt?; 2) what legal bills?; 3) what severance payments.

And then there is what the speaker described on page 48 as “the most comprehensive analysis of the Retirement Allowance to date” which he suggested  “appears to have been conducted in January 2014 by the Legislative Assembly’s then-Director of Human Resources, Jo-Anne Kern, following the publication of the John Doyle audit report and at the request of then-Speaker Linda Reid.” What’s disturbing is that this report appears to have either been removed, destroyed or not filed appropriately.

At 10:00am today I held a press conference in which I provided our response to the Speaker’s report. Below I reproduce the statement that I used in the press briefing. The entire press conference was filmed on Facebook Live.

Media Statement

• I have now had a chance to read the report in its entirety and I have to say, the allegations in this report point to a culture of entitlement and were sickening to read.
• I want to thank the speaker for the immense public service he has provided in bringing forward his concerns in such a detailed manner. As the first truly independent Speaker he has shown a willingness to speak to truth to power that can be sorely missing in politics.
• I also want to thank the whistleblowers who can forward to speak with the Speaker. This takes courage and willingness to look out for the broader public interest.
• Beyond the specific allegations of this report, there is another deeply concerning fact: these actions were allowed to go on for an extended period of time with documented efforts to conceal what was happening
• We have reported instances of people having their contracts terminated for trying to raise concerns about these practices;
• We have allegations that documentation which raised concerns disappeared from the previous Speaker’s vault – only made public because someone was willing to come forward with a personal copy;
• We have allegations that there was pressure to quash investigations into these practices.
• The culture that at best turned a blind eye and at worst actively concealed these actions is the same culture that oversaw the escalating crisis of money laundering in BC.
• These issues don’t happen in a vacuum. They are enabled by a culture that chooses to not ask questions and treats power as an entitlement to be protected – rather than as public responsibility to be stewarded.
• Half of all working Canadians are living paycheque to paycheque. BC has one of the highest poverty rates in the country. While we must still view these as allegations, if true, it is abhorrent the officials in charge of this public institution would feel entitled to live lavishly with taxpayer money – expensing mother of pearl cufflinks when many British Columbians can’t even afford breakfast.
• We will be taking a very close look at what steps can be taken to ensure this legislature has additional checks and balances, and that power is not something vested simply in a small group of individuals.
• Separately, I also must raise my deep misgivings about the relationship detailed in this report between the Clerk of the legislature and the BC Liberal party.
• The office of the Speaker and the Clerk must be counted on to be independent from the political machinations that can take place in this building.
• When reports that raise worrying concerns disappear, when there is consistent and unexplained travel by non-partisan officials to political offices and elected officials, when the new Speaker is warned that the Clerk has a deep relationship with the BC Liberal Party – and most importantly, when a new, and truly independent speaker is able to immediately reveal extensive allegations of abuse, tough questions must be asked.
• As we stated yesterday, our caucus will do whatever it takes to ensure that trust can be restored and that British Columbians get answers to the numerous unanswered questions that are raised by this report.