NDP, Greens call for answers from ex-Speaker Reid
Liberal MLA singled out by whistleblower on allegations of financial wrongdoing
Both the NDP and Green parties are calling for answers from Liberal MLA and former Speaker Linda Reid, among growing allegations of inappropriate expense claims at the B.C. legislature.
Green Leader Andrew Weaver said, in response to a former employee directing financial wrongdoing allegations toward Reid, that she should step aside as assistant deputy speaker to restore public trust in the legislature.
“I feel strongly that it is inappropriate for MLA Reid to continue to serve as assistant deputy speaker until such a time that these allegations can be fully addressed,” Weaver said.
Reid has refused to speak publicly. In a brief statement released by the Liberal party, she didn’t address the calls for her to step down or the allegations by a whistleblower about potential double-dipping.
“As the auditor conducts their investigation, I will make myself fully available. I will work with the auditor and any other investigators to ensure the protection of taxpayer dollars,” Reid’s statement said.
Speaker Darryl Plecas’s bombshell report, released Monday, alleges hundreds of thousands of dollars in questionable expenses from clerk Craig James and sergeant-atarms Gary Lenz, who are suspended with pay. None of this has been tested in court.
At a news conference in Prince George on Wednesday, Premier John Horgan said he was shocked by the allegations in the report and at how some B.C. Liberals criticized Plecas last fall when James and Lenz were suspended.
“(Plecas) has shed a light on something that all British Columbians are startled and disgusted by,” Horgan said. “Clearly, after 16 years of a sense of (Liberal) entitlement at the legislature, it is time to clean that up.”
The 76-page document contains numerous allegations, including that an unnamed former legislature assistant had raised concerns in the past about an unnamed MLA, and that those concerns were shared with the Speaker’s office and ultimately dismissed.
On Wednesday, citing a Global TV story, the NDP said Connor Gibson was the whistleblower and that his former boss, Reid, was the target of his allegations.
The report says Gibson raised concerns that mileage claims had been made for trips Reid had taken by taxi, and that full-day per diems were claimed when she had been provided food for free. Gibson was let go a short time later on May 31, 2018, which the Liberals say today was because his contract had expired.
But just two days earlier, on May 29, 2018, Gibson was called a rising star in the Liberal party, according to Hansard transcripts.
“I think that he’s probably one of the strongest, hardest-working (legislative assistants),” Liberal MLA Mike Bernier, who hired Gibson as his executive assistant during his ill-fated 2017 leadership campaign, told the legislature.
The NDP alleges Reid needs to answer for more than her own expenses, since she was the Speaker from 2013-2017, during a time when many of the inappropriate spending allegations cited in Plecas’s report took place.