Nechako Lakes MLA John Rustad was the legislature's fourth biggest spender, according to a summary of travel expenses released recently.
Rustad, a Liberal backbencher, ran up a bill of $39,653 for the first six months of the fiscal year, which began April 1.
Expenses for neighbouring Liberal MLAs Pat Bell (Prince George-Mackenzie) and Shirley Bond (Prince George-Valemount) added up to $11,597 and $6,230 respectively.
Their bills are lower because, as cabinet ministers, much of their travel costs are picked up by their respective ministries, Rustad suggested.
To the east, the total for NDP MLA Gary Coons (North Coast) was $37,414 and to the south, Independent MLA Bob Simpson (Cariboo North) spent $25,511.
Rustad attributed his travel costs to the many committees he sits on combined with the distance of Nechako Lakes from Victoria. Rustad said he sits on the treasury board and the committees for the environmental land use, legislative review, health, public accounts, Crown corporations and he also chaired the special committee on timber supply that held hearings across the province.
"I'm on more committees now than I normally have been," he said. "And not just committees but also committees that have been very active."
George Abbott, the MLA for Shuswap and a former cabinet minister and contender for the B.C. Liberal leadership and who said he won't be running in the coming election, has accumulated the largest tab at $53,606.
He's followed by Bill Barisoff, the house speaker and Liberal MLA for Penticton, at $46,410 and then NDP forest critic and MLA for Columbia River-Revelstoke Norm Macdonald at $45,332. Macdonald also sat on the special committee for timber supply.
Simpson pointed to the cost of plane travel as the main source of his total.
"The lion's share of just the travel line is we had a spring session," he said. "Becoming an independent MLA doesn't mean I pick up the tab for going back and forth to sit in the legislature."
He and fellow independent MLA Vicky Huntington also travelled the B.C. Peace in March but the bills might not have been submitted until April, Simpson said.
Rustad said he's been posting his travel expenses every June on his Facebook page for the last three years and Simpson said he's been posting his on his website when the actual travel occurs and have done so since well before the legislative reports were first issued in July.
