B.C. legislature speaker threatens to resign
V I C T O R I A • The Speaker of British Columbia’s legislature says he’ll resign if financial audits underway don’t result in outrage from taxpayers.
Darryl Plecas made his statements during an allparty management committee meeting grappling with the fallout of a police investigation that saw the legislature’s top two officials placed on administrative leave.
Plecas told members of the committee that he can’t discuss the reasons behind the investigation but welcomes an audit of the books “because they need to be examined.”
Sergeant-at-arms Gary Lenz and house clerk Craig James were escorted from the building last month after the members of the legislature voted to place them on administrative leave because of the RCMP investigation.
Lenz and James have denied any wrongdoing and their lawyer has demanded they be allowed to return to their jobs while the investigation continues.
Plecas says soon after he was appointed Speaker last year he was made aware of issues that warranted him to do his due diligence on behalf of taxpayers.
He and Liberal house leader Mary Polak clashed during the tense meeting Thursday, with Plecas complaining he and his aide Alan Mullen — who have been accused of running a secret sevenmonth investigation into the clerk and sergeant-at-arms — have been treated unfairly.
He angrily told the committee that the debate over the suspensions had “degenerated into a circus” and proposed a mid-January meeting in which he would lay out his “serious concerns” about spending at the legislature and commission an immediate audit.
“I am completely confident that those audits will show that we have a lot of work to do here,” said Plecas.
“And if the outcome of those audits did not outrage the public, did not outrage taxpayers, did not make them throw up, I will resign as Speaker. And Mr. Mullen will resign as well.”
Two special prosecutors were appointed on Oct. 1, but the RCMP has not commented beyond stating the investigation involves “the activities of senior staff at the British Columbia legislature.”