In the wake of yesterday’s revelation that Tory MLA’s Cindy Ady and Barry McFarland received $19,000 for work on the Idaho-Alberta task force – a task force which only met once and has no recorded accomplishments or activity beyond the one meeting – Edmonton-Centre Alberta Liberal MLA Laurie Blakeman has announced that she had returned the $3,000 she received for work on another MLA committee that did little work:
Liberal MLA gives back committee pay
Archie McLean, The Edmonton JournalEDMONTON – Alberta Liberal MLA Laurie Blakeman gave more than $3,000 back to the government this month after she was paid for membership on a committee that stopped doing work.
Three Conservative MLAs received a combined $17,630 for their seven-month membership on the Legislative Grounds Renewal Committee despite meeting only three times in two months. One NDP member got $3,526, but has pledged to return a portion of the cash as well.
The revelation comes just one day after The Journal reported another two Tory MLAs received more than $19,000 for their membership in the Idaho-
Alberta Transboundary Task Force, which did little or no work during their paid stint.
Blakeman and the others were part of the legislative grounds committee from April 3 to Nov. 8, 2006 and were each paid $508.50 per month. The chair, Tory MLA George Rogers, got about $1,500 per month.
Blakeman even paid back the money she received in May, saying she didn’t ask for it and didn’t believe she did enough work to justify the payment.
