Message to politicians and others prone to indulging in luxuries at public expense: Just stop it. Stop making excuses. Stop whining that it鈥檚 the way things have always been done. Stop believing you are somehow entitled to live better than those who pay your salaries. Stop talking about transparency and accountability, and walk the talk. Do it now, not at some fuzzy future date following a series of namby-pamby committee meetings and policy-planning sessions.
The latest public figure to be outed for living high on the public hog is Linda Reid, Speaker of the sa国际传媒 legislature, whose husband accompanied her on a trip to South Africa last year with sa国际传媒 taxpayers picking up the tab. She has apologized and has repaid the $5,528 it cost to take her husband along.
Let鈥檚 be clear 鈥� Reid did nothing illegal and nothing that hasn鈥檛 been done before, as she points out. In fact, New Democrat MLA Raj Chouhan, assistant deputy speaker, went on the same trip and took his wife.
In his defence, Chouhan initially offered to pay his wife鈥檚 expenses, but was told by Reid it wasn鈥檛 necessary because spousal travel was approved. He said Wednesday he will repay the money.
Reid travelled to South Africa to attend a Commonwealth Parliamentary Association conference. Sound familiar? That鈥檚 the same association that held a conference in Kenya in 2010, attended by Bill Barisoff, then Speaker of the house, deputy speaker Claire Trevena and legislative clerk Craig James. All three took their spouses. Barisoff and Trevena didn鈥檛 reveal their expenses for the week-long junket, but they were probably similar to James鈥檚 expense claim of $18,500.
The association, which holds annual conferences in exotic places, ostensibly promotes democracy and respect for the rule of law. Lofty sentiments, but we would rather our parliamentarians worked on developing more respect for the public purse. The strength of our parliamentary democracy does not depend on conferences in Kenya, or South Africa, but on parliamentarians staying home and doing their jobs.
The government has frozen salaries of senior staff for five years, and many highly qualified senior employees can鈥檛 fly off to worthwhile conferences, yet the Speaker can fly off to Johannesburg for a conference of dubious value? Even without spousal expenses, it鈥檚 a wasteful expenditure when budgets are being restricted and programs are being cut.
Legislators taking tropical vacations don鈥檛 look as if they鈥檙e sharing the pain, but are looking more like the pigs in Animal Farm, George Orwell鈥檚 satire of the Soviet Union鈥檚 Stalinist era. After the animals take over and boot out the abusive farmer, they declare that all animals are equal. Then the pigs take power and amend that principle to: 鈥淎ll animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.鈥�
When it comes to dubious expenses, officials should not be seeing how close they can get to the limit, but how far they can stay away from it. Public money is a trust, not a fund to support a sybaritic lifestyle for those who seem to think they are more equal than others.
Despite talk of transparency when she was named Speaker, Reid was not voluntarily forthcoming about her expenses. It makes us wonder who will be next in this wearisome parade of politicians living the good life at public expense.
There should be an uproar in the legislature, but the New Democrats are neutered by Jenny Kwan鈥檚 association with the Portland Hotel Society scandal, and the Liberals are neutered by Reid鈥檚 inappropriate expenditures. They should all get together and make it stop. Now.
The change to the all-party sense of entitlement doesn鈥檛 require a constitutional amendment. All it requires is an immediate and resolute stiffening of the backbone.
