The Tri-Cities' three MLAs own properties in the area, have personal assets and debts, but did not accept gifts of $250 or more last year, according to public disclosure statements released recently.
The papers filed through B.C.'s Conflict of Interest Commissioner and viewed by The Tri-City News, show BC Liberal Douglas Horne, MLA for Coquitlam-Burke Mountain, shares with his wife a communications and project management business called Laralas Investment, of which he is director and she is president/secretary. His wife, Larissa, also owns their home and she holds the mortgage, the documents show.
Horne's only source of income in 2011 was from his job as MLA while his spouse earned money through the University of the Fraser Valley, Capilano University and Laralas Investment. The backbencher who was elected in 2009 also has two outstanding loans, one of them through a family member.
On the NDP side, Coquitlam-Maillardville MLA Diane Thorne lists her MLA salary as income in addition to revenue generated from rental properties shared with her husband, Neil.
The couple also has a home in Coquitlam and investment property on 152nd Street in Surrey. As well, the party's deputy education critic has a half interest in a residential property in Port Moody (on which she holds a mortgage) and recreational property in Trinity, in Newfoundland, where she grew up. In addition, Thorne lists seven RRSP plans on her disclosures.
Port Coquitlam MLA Mike Farnworth's financial paperwork shows he shares a PoCo home with his partner and they have mortgage on it. The NDP's health critic also has shares in Sun Life Financial and lists "assumption of constituency association debt" as both an asset and a liability.
Meanwhile, Port Moody-Coquitlam MLA Iain Black did not file public disclosure papers with the commissioner as he resigned from office before they were due; Black became the CEO of the Vancouver Board of Trade last October.
Former Burquitlam MLA Harry Bloy, a BC Liberal who now holds the seat in Burnaby-Lougheed, generated publicity recently after it was revealed he was the only provincial politician to accept gifts of more than $250 last year.
According to his financial statements, he accepted nearly $2,000 in presents in 2011, including: two tickets, valued at $450, to a Vancouver Canucks regular season game from Global Container Terminals on March 16, 2011; and two Canucks' Stanley Cup final tickets, valued at $800, to sit in the corporate box owned by Burnaby-based Pacific Western Brewery, on June 6, 2011.
Bloy, who has a home in Coquitlam, also declared a courtesy membership in the Vancouver Board of Trade (valued at $740) and an honorary social (non-playing) membership to the Vancouver Golf Club in Coquitlam.
- with files from the Burnaby NewsLeader
