MLA Joan McIntyre Billed $14,839 in Travel Expenses

By Gagandeep Ghuman
Published: Nov. 3, 2012

Sea to Sky MLA Joan McIntyre billed $14,839 in travel expenses to the provincial tax payers between April and September this year.

She was one among the 85 MLAs who collectively billed the province $1.5 million.

The disclosure comes six months after a searing report by the auditor general found the legislature’s financial records in general disarray.

She billed $3,157 for travel in her constituency, while her general travel expenses were $3,596.

McIntyre did not return calls until press time to comment on her travel expenses.

Her expenses seem to fall in the middle spectrum when compared to other provincial MLAs.

New Democrat Robin Austin, of  Skeena riding in B.C.’s northwest, led his legislative peers with a bill of $53,606 during the sixth month period.

It also includes a $19,000 government-sanctioned trip to a conference in Sri Lanka.

Speaker of the house, Bill Barisoff, was at No.2 with a total expense of $46,410, while Norm MacDonald was next with a bill of $45,332.

Canadian Taxpayers Federation’s Robert Bateman said the release of the travel expenses was a commendable, but the expenses lack proper context.

He said the expense report don’t give a breakdown of where and how the money was spent.

For example, McIntyre spent almost $7,000 on travel.

But the report doesn’t indicate where and how the money was spent.

“The information just doesn’t go far,” he said.

“Tax payers would like to know the details; the travel receipts on hotel and flights and meals.”

Meanwhile, the tax payer’s federation plans to send a letter to house speaker Barisoff this week, with suggestions on making the reporting more transparent.

One suggestion is to release information on receipts of hotel stays and meals. Another is to disclose the names of all those who accompany the MLA on the road.

The Auditor’s General report this July was one of the most damning reports that came out of his office.

The report found the legislature finance books a mess: bank transactions couldn’t be verified, information on expenses was misclassified, capital assets were not properly stated, and there was a general mismanagement.

And, of course, the MLAs billed expenses without having to submit receipts.

In March this year, the Conflict and Ethics Commissioner revealed MP John Weston took travel junkets worth $15,000 to visit Hong Kong and Baghdad last year.

The report released on Tuesday shows MP Weston’s one-week trip in last September to the Iraqi capital was sponsored by One Free World International.