‘Fildebrandt rule’ shuts Airbnb loophole for MLAs
An Alberta legislative committee has unanimously approved a motion barring MLAs from renting out taxpayer-subsidized apartments on Airbnb.
Alberta Party Leader Greg Clark is calling it the “Fildebrandt rule.”
The change was passed at a Thursday morning members services committee meeting — the first since Derek Fildebrandt, MLA for Strathmore-Brooks, landed in hot water for renting out his taxpayer-funded apartment on Airbnb.
Fildebrandt resigned from the United Conservative Party caucus and sits as an independent.
“It’s not perfect, but we got there,” Clark said after the meeting.
“The bottom line is, after today, no MLA can do what Fildebrandt did.”
Interim UCP leader Nathan Cooper committed to zipping shut the Airbnb loophole when Postmedia revealed the issue last month. He was the one to introduce the motion Thursday.
Cooper acknowledged there’s a chance the online rental site won’t even exist in two years, but told the committee Albertans expect action and clarity. His motion prohibits renting a taxpayersubsidized apartment through any third party, as well as Airbnb.
After the meeting, he said taxpayers are entitled to written assurances about how their dollars are being spent.
“I think it was important for everyone that we got this passed and … that members’ services guidelines are modern and reflect the realities of today,” Cooper said.
As committee business drew to a close, meeting chairman Robert Wanner, the NDP member for Medicine Hat, said the issue offered a reminder to all MLAs.
“Honourable members are expected to be just that: honourable,” he said.
“They are also expected to be accountable to their constituents. I think our public have sent a fairly clear message to this legislature.”
Thursday’s rule tweak is a stopgap measure as a subcommittee wrestles with a larger expense review — work it has been slogging through since January.
It’s one thing to rent out a taxpayer-funded apartment, but there’s also the issue of MLAs using their housing allowance to buy a residence in Edmonton and re-sell it when they leave the assembly.
There are no rules against doing so.
Subcommittee member Estefania Cortes-Vargas, NDP MLA for Strathcona-Sherwood Park, said that’s another matter the group has to discuss.
As yet, she said, there’s no specific direction around buying a second home on the taxpayer dime.
The issue caused outrage in 1992 after taxpayers ponied up more than $1.3 million to finance living allowances for MLAs, including some who lived less than a 30-minute drive from the legislature building.
A handful of cabinet ministers in the then-Progressive Conservative government used the money to make mortgage payments on houses and condos in Edmonton, which they sold for large profits when they retired.
“We need to be able to make sure that elected officials are able to be here … when they need to be, but are not, in essence, double-dipping or making a profit on the taxpayers’ money,” Cortes-Vargas said Thursday.