Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Travel Expenses (flights) and (non-flights) for the BC Minister of Education from April to December: $31,446.66

Since being appointed Education Minister last March, I’ve had the pleasure of visiting 95 schools and half of the province’s 60 school districts. I’ve met with hundreds of teachers, students, parents and administrators.  Hon. George Abbott - Vancouver Province

  32 dots connected, by no means an exact copy of just where the Minister of Education has been in eleven months, but they are in a somewhat chronological order, of his visits to "95" schools out of public system containing 1,631 and the 345 Independent Schools which he oversees as well.  As to School Districts in BC, there's 92 according to BC STATS, not 60.


On October 11th the BC Education Minister was in Fort St. John.
On October 14th the BC Education Minister was in the South Okanagan
On October 15th the BC Education Minister was in Oliver.

We can see the South Okanagan to Oliver trip being easy to do, drive, but Fort St. John to the South Okanagan... leaving early on the 12th, and arriving on 13th with a night of rest before the meetings on the 14th..... is 1,153 kilometres and taking 15 hours and 26 minutes..... and its via the Jasper National Park.

Flying would probably be better, safer too, but there's this one little problem.... and its from the Open Information online booklet for:

Travel Expenses

Welcome to B.C.'s catalogue of public information. Here is a summary of travel expenses that meet your search terms. Select any travel expense entry to view details or download information associated with it.

We selected the Travel Expenses for the Education Minister, for October, and there are NO expenses for In Province Flights, none, there are, however expenses for Other Travel in Province totaling $1550.86 which must cover things like a bus or a government issued car.  Motels, Gas and Food that's extra and not considered to be a TRAVEL EXPENSE, or is it.  The numbers for one month would make most senior citizens proud.   How the Minister arrived for the October 11th meeting, that's ten days of travelling (not by plane), we haven't found, yet, but he must have got there, somehow and from somewhere(s) after leaving Queensborough on September 14th where that Month's total Travel Expenses were $3,025.81.

The Travel Expense data provided by the Christy Clark government is SPARSE in details, just lump sum expenses, too bad.

The travel information is History now, no need for security, but knowing in advance would allow the public to be out waving their newly purchased BC flags........ after the 18 months of converting the HST back to a PST, of course.

1 comment:

  1. Most of the Campbell/Clark BC Liberals expense accounts are murky. We were so furious at Ida Chong and her fine dining food bill, which was $6,000.

    The Minister of Education, is only one member. The BC Libs probably spend $1,300 per night luxury hotel suites, as Flahery and MacKay do.

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