B.C. Greens won’t support officials’ return to legislature after spending report

Victoria: British Columbia’s Green party will not support the return to the legislature of two senior officers after a report by the Speaker was released alleging spending abuses. Andrew Weaver says the house leaders for the NDP, Liberals and Greens will consider their options for the futures of clerk Craig James and sergeant-atarms Gary Lenz, but he would not support their return to work.

“To be blunt, I do not see how it is possible for our caucus to continue to have confidence in the clerk and the sergeantat-arms if they were recommended to come back to the legislature,” Weaver told reporters on Tuesday.

A 76-page report by Speaker Darryl Plecas alleges spending by the two men on luxurious overseas trips, payout packages and personal purchases totalling millions of dollars. Both men have denied any wrongdoing.

Plecas said the report released Monday is based on what he had seen and heard at the legislature since being named Speaker in September 2017, and that he felt obligated to contact the RCMP.

“The allegations of the report point to a culture of entitlement and was, to be honest, sickening to read,” said Weaver, who thanked Plecas for his work on it.

“This took courage and a willingness to look out for the broader public interest.”

Lenz and James were suspended and escorted out of the legislature in November after it was announced the RCMP had begun an investigation, of doing.

“We are only now able to read the allegations for the first time and we committee, which gave James and Lenz until Feb. 1 to respond.

The RCMP says

it

is business rationales; expensing of personal purchases to the legislature in the tens of thousands wood-splitting device and trailer that it says ended up at James’s home. The report says the RCMP took the wood splitter and trailer last year.

In the report, Plecas says he was told the trailer and wood splitter were bought by the legislature in case they were needed in a crisis.

“Why do we need a wood splitter?” Weaver asked on Tuesday.

Plecas is chairman of the legislative assembly management committee, which also includes four NDP, two Liberal and one Green member of the legislature. It voted Monday to release the report, conduct a workplace review and ask an auditor from outside B.C. to review legislature financial issues. Attorney General David Eby said the two men should have the opportunity to respond to the report.

“I think that most people who read the read the report shared my feeling that it contains some very disturbing allegations and, more broadly, raised concerns about controls within the legislative assembly and the lack of oversight,” he said at an event in Vancouver. Police and two special prosecutors assigned to the case continue their work, he added.

“I’ve encouraged all members of the legislature to avoid speculating and to avoid comment that could potentially impact that investigation,” Eby said.