Friday, July 16, 2010Chong’s big meal claim and MLAs’ sense of entitlement

Friday, July 16, 2010 Paying attention Paul Wilcocks

It’s not really Ida Chong’s fault. She’s a cultural victim. The minister for health living and sport ran into a storm of criticism when the Times Colonist reported she claimed almost $6,000 in meal allowances last year – while living a few miles from the legislature. All MLAs can claim a $61 a day for meals when the legislature is sitting or they are in Victoria or Vancouver on government business. (If they live outside the capital, they can also claim up to $19,000 a year to rent or buy a place in the capital.) The capital city allowance, it’s called.

Chong, the public accounts revealed, claimed $5,921 in meal expenses — about 98 days worth. Even though she lives about 10 kilometres from the legislature. And the legislature only sat for 60 days out of the year, Pack a lunch like the rest of us, angry voters said, especially when your government is cutting programs and telling people belt-tightening is needed. Chong argued all MLAs collected similar amounts. (Unfortunately for her, Murray Coell, her neighbour and fellow cabinet minister, undermined that defence by claimed $1,321.) And she said, correctly, that the meal claims were within the rules.(More)