BURSTDelta South MLA Ian Paton confirmed to Black Press Media that the RCMP is scheduled to interview him at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday to discuss allegations that B.C. Conservative Leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay offered him a paid job in exchange for his resignation.
“There are two of them (officers) coming down tomorrow morning to my office,” he told Black Press Media.
Findlay was elected as party leader without a seat in the legislature, so she needed someone in the party to step aside so she could run in a byelection. Paton alleges she offered him an advisory staff role if he would step down.
A recording has also been circulating on social media of Findlay offering an “advisory” position to a group of MLAs in exchange for stepping down during a Penticton caucus meeting in July.
Findlay posted a response, calling allegations of wrongdoing a “political smear job and nothing more.”
“These were normal political discussions that respect the boundaries of the law and ethics,” she wrote.
Black Press Media has confirmed the recording’s authenticity with people who were in the room at the time.
Canada’s Criminal Code bars any offer of “reward or profit” in exchange for resignation from elected office.
Paton says Findlay’s chief of staff, Chris Delaney, told him the role on offer would include pay equal to his MLA salary, which is about $122,000 per year.
He says he turned down the offer, not even realizing at the time it may have been improper.
“I didn’t think that much about it,” he said.
But regardless of the offer’s legality, Paton was fed up with poor communication and other challenges under Findlay’s leadership and quit the party soon after. Six other MLAs have also left in recent weeks.
Paton said he now believes the RCMP have already interviewed at least two others who may have received similar offers. He says one of those is another recent defector, Prince George-Valemount MLA Rosalyn Bird.
When asked, Bird would not say whether the RCMP had interviewed her.
“The only thing I’m willing to say on record is that Kerry-Lynne Findlay did ask me for my seat,” Bird told Black Press Media last Thursday. “Any other details regarding what those conversations looked like in detail, I am not willing to comment on.”
Of the allegations made publicly, Bird said there are “agencies responsible” for determining whether “those improprieties are significant or not significant,” but that it’s “not for me to decide.”
The RCMP confirmed police are aware of the recording of Findlay circulating on social media, but would not say whether a formal investigation is underway.
“Generally speaking, the RCMP does not confirm or deny any investigation, or the identity of any person who may be subject to an investigation, until such time as charges have been laid,” said Staff Sgt. Kris Clark in a statement to Black Press Media.
The B.C. Prosecution Service also declined to say whether a special prosecutor has been assigned, citing internal policy.