A recently released report detailing public account figures for the province shows how much taxpayers spend each year to foot the bill for an MLA.
The report was the first MLA expense report to be released in B.C. and was long awaited, but it has now come under fire for falling short of providing any detail.
MLAs aren’t obligated to provide any explicit details of their spending in the report, other than expense totals and the basic annual remuneration amount.
Critics have since slammed the report for excluding an itemized list of expenditures for each MLA.
According to the public accounts report, Nechako Lakes MLA John Rustad chewed through $48,533 in travel expenses last fiscal year.
Although not the biggest spender on the MLA list, he is close to the top. Rustad’s travel allowance is on par with an annual average wage for B.C. taxpayers, however he said he also has one of the largest and most remote ridings in the province.