For the week of June 28, 2020.
Last summer, the BC Liberals were ridiculing Alan Mullen for spending $13,000 on a tour of legislatures on both sides of the border. They called it his excellent summer road trip.
In the wake of the corruption scandal and RCMP investigation that rocked the Legislature, Speaker Darryl Plecas sent his chief of staff on a fact-finding mission to learn how B.C. could save money at the seat of government.
Mullen tabled a report in January that recommends how to save at least $1 million.
Alan Mullen, chief of staff to Speaker Darryl Plecas. (Mackin)
But the all-party Legislative Assembly Management Committee chose to keep the report secret for six months. It finally leaked out last week, when lawmakers reconvened after a three-month pandemic hiatus.
“Why did you go silent?” Mullen asks. “Because if you were so concerned back in August and September that this was a gross waste of money, why, when you received it in January, did you not give it to the British Columbia taxpayer and say ‘here’s what you got for your $13,000, you tell us, is it worth it or or is it not?'”
It turns out Mullen’s report was prescient, because he advocated defunding the Legislative Assembly Protective Services and replacing the Parliament Buildings’ police force with a security department.
It costs more for LAPS to police 12 acres than what Victoria suburbs Oak Bay and Central Saanich pay for their full-service police departments. LAPS is over-staffed and prone to charging overtime, even though it has to call-in the Victoria Police to deal with protests.
Mullen also proposed phasing out the $226,000-a-year, full-time sergeant-at-arms position.
Read a copy of the Mullen Report, click here. Click below to listen to Alan Mullen, this week’s featured guest on theBreaker.news Podcast with host Bob Mackin
Plus Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines and commentary, including Mackin’s proposal for how Canada can achieve freedom for Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor without returning Meng Wanzhou to China.
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