Jonathan Fowlie, Vancouver Sun February 5, 2010
VICTORIA — The B.C. government plans to announce today that Liberal cabinet ministers and other MLAs will have access to only about 200 of the more than 4,000 tickets acquired as part of a plan to host dignitaries, business leaders and international investors during the Winter Games. The policy — which imposes new restrictions on how and when members of government can use the tickets — comes more than three months after it became public that the province was spending just over $940,000 on tickets for the Olympics.
It comes at a time when elected politicians are having to tread a line between getting the access needed to do their work and not being seen as exploiting their influence for personal gain. “I think it’s the right balance,” Minister of State for the Olympics Mary McNeil said Thursday. “We’re here as government, we represent the people. But we also have to make sure we sell our province well to the world.” McNeil said only two of the 49 Liberal MLAs will be allowed to attend a given event using provincially-funded tickets. That includes major events such as gold-medal hockey games and the figure skating finals. She said the one exception is the B.C. Day victory ceremony on Feb. 14, for which Vanoc has set aside free tickets for all MLAs plus one guest each. It is the only event to which NDP MLAs have been invited, McNeil said, adding that the entire NDP caucus has said it will not take any free tickets during the Olympics.
McNeil said that government MLAs will get free tickets through the program only for events where they are hosting official guests. They will not be able to bring personal guests. Most of the remaining tickets — about 3,400 — will be given to visiting dignitaries, business leaders and potential investors in B.C.
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