Premier John Horgan was at the annual Association of Mineral Exploration (AME) Roundup conference to talk about mining in B.C. Monday, January 28, but the hottest topic in a media scrum following his keynote address was about turning over rocks of a very different kind.
Horgan was asked about the ongoing scandal at the legislature, in which the Speaker, Darryl Plecas, has gone from Liberal turncoat to folk hero almost overnight for exposing alleged profligate spending by two officers of the Legislative Assembly – clerk Craig James and sergeant-at-arms Gary Lenz.
Horgan was also asked if he is worried that his government will fall, should the NDP lose Nanaimo to the Liberals in Wednesday’s byelection. Nanaimo is traditionally an NDP stronghold. But a recent Mainstreet Research poll puts the Liberal candidate in Nanaimo, Tony Harris, with a 13% lead over NDP candidate Sheila Malcolmson.
Horgan suggested that a special report by Plecas makes the Liberals look worse than the NDP, since they were in power for 16 years, when most of the alleged overspending occurred.
“The last days of the campaign, we see that sense of entitlement that’s been manifest in Darryl Plecas’ report," Horgan said. "We see that entitlement reminding people of the way Liberals used to roll and I don’t think we want to go back to that.”
In the fall, Plecas – a former Liberal MLA who was kicked out of the Liberal caucus for accepting the role of Speaker – announced that he had commissioned an internal investigation into the spending and conduct of the clerk and sergeant-at-arms. It led to both officers of the Legislative Assembly being relieved of their duties and ushered out of the legislature.
Plecas' motives were originally questioned. But when he recently issued a report enumerating a laundry list of questionable expenses and perks that had been signed off by previous speakers, public opinion quickly shifted. And now former Speakers are coming under scrutiny for signing off and not questioning some of the questionable expenses that Plecas has highlighted.
The public was surprised to learn that neither the clerk nor sergeant-at-arms were subject to the same accountability and transparency with respect to expenses that MLAs are. Horgan said he questioned that lack of oversight and accountability at the committee level.
“I raised these issues five, six years ago, when I was on the Legislative Assembly Management Committee," Horgan said. "I said: 'Why are these two guys exempt? Why are they not covered by any of the oversight that everybody else is?' I’m accountable for them as a member of the legislature…but I have no ability to control what they do. I said that in committee, and the Liberals said, “yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever,' and did nothing about it.
“Again, (Liberal Leader Andrew) Wilkinson and his crew have more to answer for that than I do.”
If the Liberals were to win Nanaimo in Wednesday's byelection, it could trigger an early election, since the NDP would no longer have the numbers they need to pass key pieces of legislation, including budgets.
Asked if Horgan would immediately call an election, if the Liberals take Nanaimo, Horgan said: “Ask me on Thursday.”
