The NDP revealed on Feb. 27 — Pink Shirt Anti-Bullying Day — that Clark’s staff was doing party work on government time, spending the public dime, in a bid to win votes from ethnic groups in the 2013 election. That was against government rules.
Clark announced that the B.C. Liberal Party had paid $70,000 to the public purse, representing some of Quick Wins co-conspirator Brian Bonney’s salary. Media outlets took the Premier for her word and published the $70,000 repayment as fact.
I wanted proof. So I filed a Freedom of Information request on March 22. The government told me that the deadline for disclosure would be May 2.
On May 2, I got a response from six ministries with a few pages of email that appears to be from citizens. But there is one important document missing.
I complained to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner and senior staff at Information Access Operations — the government’s FOI clearinghouse. I even left phone and email messages on May 8 for Liberal president Sharon White, encouraging her to release a copy of the cheque.
Finally, a copy of the $70,000 cheque arrived on May 9. Albeit a calendar week late.
Two questions:
Why was it not provided to me on time?
Why didn’t Premier Christy Clark — who claims she champions open information and data — just order her staff to publish a copy of the cheque when it was written on March 14?
See the request and the documents below.
News and views on Vancouver 2010 (and beyond) from Bob Mackin.