Today in the legislature I rose to ask  government what they are planning to do to increase accountability and transparency in the legislature. In particular, I argued that they’ve been largely silent on the matter of the Speaker’s report, almost acting as if nothing has happened.

I further asked the Premier about the disturbing allegations contained within the report concerning the Clerk’s relationship to the BC Liberals. In particular, I asked how many times since March 2017 the Clerk visited the B.C. NDP party office or an individual NDP MLA’s office in Vancouver or elsewhere in the province.

Below I reproduce the text and videos of the exchange.

Videos of Exchange

Question

A. Weaver: While the official opposition and the government quibble over the bringing in of ride-hailing here, into the province of British Columbia, it could have happened four years ago if my private member’s bill had been debated on this floor. The B.C. Greens stand ready to ensure it and bring ride-hailing here. There is no excuse for delays — no government excuse, no opposition excuse. Let’s get on with it and do it.

Hon. Speaker, it’s been three weeks since the 76-page report that you wrote, containing allegations of misconduct by senior officers of the British Columbia Legislative Assembly, was released. To suggest that the public is outraged over the culture of entitlement exposed in that report would be a gross understatement. Yet government has been largely silent on the matter, almost acting as if nothing has happened. Frankly, this is irresponsible and unacceptable.

My question is to the Premier: what is his government planning to do to increase accountability and transparency in this place as a first step to rebuilding public trust?

Answer

Hon. M. Farnworth: I thank the member for his question. I would say that every member in this House takes that report extremely seriously. That’s one of the reasons why it was publicly released. It’s one of the reasons why the Legislative Assembly Management Committee has been discussing and looking at ways of dealing with that report.

More importantly, from the government’s perspective, Hon. Member, most recently, we had a letter received, which members of your caucus also received and was made public, from the three key independent officers of this Legislature — the Merit Commissioner, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner and the Ombudsperson — on three important reforms that could in fact take place that would help to restore confidence in many of the activities that this chamber is responsible for.

I have made it clear, on the part of the government, that we will accept every single one of those recommendations, and I also made it clear that every single one of them will be implemented. We have already let the independent officers know that we intend to work with them to implement them, and they have expressed satisfaction with that.

Supplementary Question

A. Weaver: Well, that answer demonstrates exactly the point I’m trying to make: yet another reactive approach from government and no proactive leadership on a file that’s crying out for leadership.

Rebuilding public trust in this institution for British Columbians, listening and responding to external parties is one thing. We need leadership from this government, and it’s sorely missing on this file.

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the report is the alleged partisan nature of the Clerk’s office. The report details 39 entries of in-province trips taken by the Clerk since March 2017 for individual meetings. Four of these involved former B.C. Liberal Speaker Bill Barisoff. Four involved the former Premier Christy Clark, all of which occurred after she was no longer Premier. Fourteen were with former B.C. Liberal MLA Geoff Plant. Two were with the B.C. Liberal MLA from Abbotsford West. One was for a meeting at the B.C. Liberal Party offices.

Let me be clear. The Clerk has never once visited the B.C. Green Party, nor any of our MLAs, outside of this Legislature.

So my question to the Premier is this. How many times since March 2017 has the Clerk visited the B.C. NDP party office or an individual MLA’s office in Vancouver or elsewhere in the province of British Columbia, those MLAs being NDP MLAs?

Answer

Hon. J. Horgan: I thank the member for his question and his concern about the report tabled by the Speaker in the break after the last sitting of the House. I agree with him that it’s incumbent upon all of us, all members here, to demonstrate leadership. It’s not one party. It’s not one person. It’s all of us that have to demonstrate to the public that we’re serious and genuine about real reform to make sure that there’s transparency and absolute certainty that the activities of all members of this House, all table officers of this House….

Welcome to the table. I bet you didn’t count on this, did you?

But in all seriousness, the Clerk has never been to my office, whether it be at the Legislature or in my constituency. He has never visited the party office of the B.C. NDP. I have no knowledge of any of the members of my caucus ever having a visit from the Clerk of the Legislature.

Again, the questions of partisanship are in your report. The questions of partisanship are in the public domain. And I will remind members that when the Clerk, Mr. James, was appointed, it was not with the support of the official opposition — the first time in our history that an individual was appointed to head this jurisdiction, to head this table, that did not have unanimous consent. I think we need to start, as we go forward, to ensure that all of us, all 87 of us, are focused on restoring public confidence in the work that we do.

I know that each member, regardless of their political stripe, regardless of their former vocation, came to this place with a good conscience to make life better for their neighbours. I know that in my heart, and I know that we can demonstrate that to the public if we work together and not hector each other on who was right and who was wrong and whose fault it is. There’s a problem here. We all have to fix it.