Well, I’m back from 9 days off and I see I missed a TransLink fare hike, more goofy BC Liberal politicking on the taxpayers’ dime and the other usual B.C. malarkey.

And it seems NDP MLA John Horgan’s office finally got back to B.C. residents asking for more MLA expense transparency. Here is the e-mail:

Thanks for your e-mail concerning disclosure of MLA travel expenses.  I share your view that transparency is vital when it comes to spending public funds.

The Official Opposition caucus believes that MLAs should not only be open and transparent with regard to their expenses, but that it is also important to be both responsible and accountable when spending tax dollars. We were strong advocates for the first level of disclosure which occurred on an annual basis beginning in 2011.

At the end of October, through the Legislative Assembly Management Committee (LAMC), MLA travel and related costs were posted publicly. This is the next step in making more detailed information available throughout the fiscal year.

Through LAMC, we will be discussing ways to expand disclosure, including more detailed information about travel and other costs.  Meetings of the committee are now public and I encourage you to visit the committee site and listen to or read the discussion and issues that we have covered in the past few months.

The site can be found http://www.leg.bc.ca/cmt/39thparl/session-4/lamc/index.htm.

Since I was appointed to the Legislative Assembly Management Committee we have made positive steps to lead to full disclosure, but we have more work to do.

I appreciate you sharing your thoughts on this issue.

Regards,

John Horgan, MLA

Notice no promise or mention of receipts—the new gold standard in political spending transparency?

My favorite line: “The Official Opposition caucus believes that MLAs should not only be open and transparent with regard to their expenses, but that it is also important to be both responsible and accountable when spending tax dollars.”

Well, they may believe in it, but not enough to give taxpayers the true facts of what’s going on. Come on, John, this is a softball right across the plate for the NDP. Hit a home run for transparency!