This week I started posting my travel expense reports on my website www.bobsimpsonmla.ca. The press immediately labeled this a challenge to all other MLAs to become more “transparent” and suggested I wouldn’t be very popular with my colleagues in the Legislature. I also got lots of airtime on the issue and kudos from the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation.
However, making my expense reports public had nothing to do with the other MLAs and was not a challenge in any way to their integrity. It was simply about fulfilling a promise I made earlier in the year when the Legislative Assembly Management Committee (LAMC) made a decision to only report on the total annual expenses incurred by MLAs and not their detailed accounts. I didn’t agree with that decision, as I believe there’s nothing to hide in our detailed expense accounts and lots to be gained from being fully transparent with the public
There’s no smoking gun in this matter – our travel expenses are governed by strict rules and overseen by the Comptroller General’s office. Only airfare, taxis, rental cars, hotel rooms and other legitimate expenses are reimbursed and we get a $61 “per diem” to cover food. In most cases, MLAs end up out of pocket when they travel to and from Victoria or when traveling on MLA business outside their constituency.
That’s why I see no good reason for LAMC (which consists of representatives of the two main political parties and the Speaker) to hold back on full disclosure of our individual expense accounts and why I’m now posting my expense forms on my web page (and would have done so earlier if a technical issue with my webpage hadn’t prevent me from doing so).
Not providing details in this case simply feeds the cynicism toward politicians that is so pervasive in our society. It also distracts from the real financial accountability issues we should be confronting: like the ineffectiveness of balanced budget legislation, appropriate levels of taxation, or how realistic the public’s expectations are of government relative to their willingness to pay for them.
Rather than getting a lot of airtime talking about my travel expenses, I’d sooner have more attention paid to the other issues I’ve been raising about the Pacific Carbon Trust or hydraulic fracking or the state of our forests or whether we’re getting enough revenue from our natural resources. These issues are much more important to British Columbians than MLAs travel expenses.