Some of our municipal politicians are under fire this week over travel expenses to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference in Vancouver.
Here on the Sunshine Coast, several of our municipal politicians travelled to Vancouver to attend the event, which attracted more than 2,000 politicians from across the country for the four days. Many people, including our politicians, had to stay overnight, as travelling back and forth would have been a significant challenge - and in the case of out-of-province guests, darn near impossible.
We have no problem with how our politicians handled the travel expenses, but we do take issue with some of their Lower Mainland colleagues.
The first to blow the whistle was Coquitlam Coun. Lou Sekora when some on his council chose to stay in expensive downtown Vancouver hotels instead of taking the 45-minute or so commute back to their homes in Coquitlam. The next day, it was revealed by Lower Mainland media outlets that several Surrey politicos also chose to forego the commute and stayed in hotels.
The pricey junkets reopened the debate for a greater transparency at all levels of government when it comes to this kind of spending.
The optics of the decisions by these members of council just don't sit well. We don't buy their excuses of "it's just the cost of business" and that by staying close to the conference they could stay up later and conduct more meetings and discussions with their colleagues.
If you want to do that, fine, then pay for the hotel yourself. Why should taxpayers be on the hook for $225 a night in accommodations when these politicians could very easily have made the drive home?
Lots of Lower Mainland politicians who attended the conference did just that. The delegation from the City of North Vancouver, for instance, made the commute every day by Seabus and used a free transit pass that was offered by the conference organizers.
The spending spree has been criticized by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, which has suggested that the money be paid back. Director Jordan Bateman said this week that thousands of people commute to work every day from the suburbs into Vancouver and vice versa, some working very long hours to do so. He wonders why there seems to be one set of rules for the taxpaying public and another set for politicians. We're wondering the same thing too.
It is high time that the system is overhauled and politicians become more transparent and accountable for this kind of spending. We realize that in some cases the expense is necessary, but a lot of times it isn't.
The endless gravy train needs to be stopped.
