Disneyland trip snares NDP MLA Jenny Kwan in Portland Hotel Society scandal

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      The already-explosive story of the Portland Hotel Society's spending irregularities just got bigger.

      As reported by the Vancouver Sun's Rob Shaw, the nonprofit that operates Insite paid for a $2,695 trip to Disneyland taken by NDP MLA Jenny Kwan's family.

      Kwan's ex-husband, Dan Small, was among a handful of PHS senior managers who resigned a day before today's release of a damning audit of the organization.

      According to the Sun, Kwan issued a statement:

      Together with my family, I did join my husband—who was an employee of PHS—on two trips in 2012.

      I was assured at the time by my former partner that he paid out of his pocket for the family-portion of the travel expenses.

      I never would have gone had I known that the family portion of the travel would appear to have been be paid for by PHS.

      I trust that my former partner will address the findings and take appropriate action to ensure that the PHS is reimbursed for any expenses related to family travel.

      And if he doesn’t, then I will.

      Shaw tweeted that the second trip mentioned in Kwan's statement was to Europe.

      While PHS receives millions in government money, it's not clear that the public paid for Kwan's trip.

      Comments

      28 Comments

      demonocracy

      Mar 20, 2014 at 5:43pm

      Jenny Kwan. As lame is it was that you went on some family vacations paid for by the PHS, it's so much worse that you would not own up to knowing. Throwing your ex under the bus says a lot about who you are. LAME.

      HellSlayerAndy

      Mar 20, 2014 at 6:00pm

      Oh...Jenny Kwan?

      Wasn't that Chuck Smith's Shining White Knight that was going to swoop in and save the BC NDP or something?

      Maybe Mr. Smith's NEXT thought piece will be how Jenny might ignite a lack lustre NDP federal campaign, eh?

      Her husband Dr. Dan Small...his title is what?
      -PHS senior manager
      -employee of PHS
      -PHS Executive Director

      As a drunk once told me on DES when we chatted about Insite..."Everyone who works for Portland is either a son or daughter of someone in the NDP" She said as she supt.

      Anyway...nepotism has erupted federally...apparently Innes is married to Ionne and their fighting with Pierre's kid.

      Fuck You Canada.

      woodieguy

      Mar 20, 2014 at 6:37pm

      The last sentence in the article says "While PHS receives millions in government money, it's not clear that the public paid for Kwan's trip."

      How about finding if it is clear that the public paid for any of her expenses ,before crucifying her.

      ter123

      Mar 20, 2014 at 7:27pm

      Treat this perpetrators managers and executives the same way as any other citizens. A criminal investigation is needed and no severance pay to any of them.

      Whiskey Papa

      Mar 20, 2014 at 9:25pm

      I'm no fan of the NDP in general; the BC NDP; nor any member of the BC NDP who was a member of the Cabinet (cabal?) that ran the economy of what should be Canada's second-richest province into the ground in the late 1990's.

      BUT, in this particular case, I think we have to give Ms Kwan the benefit of the doubt. It was her ex-husband and his buddies who were incurring the ridiculous expenses and entering into conflicted agreements, not her. And, given the NDP's well-known inability to understand basic finance, I find it completely believable that she didn't know the origins of hubbie's travel largesse.

      Glenn Quagmire

      Mar 20, 2014 at 10:59pm

      Jimmy crack corn & I don't care.

      Yikes!

      Mar 20, 2014 at 11:00pm

      She didn't just push her ex under the bus. She then climbed into the driver's seat, threw the bus in reverse and backed over him.

      G

      Mar 20, 2014 at 11:22pm

      LMAO! I was under the impression Ms. Kwan's partner was with a different "non-profit" and that we would have to wait for that audit for information on these "socialists" with a broken household income in the mid-$200,000's. What makes this especially entertaining is that Ms. Kwan is currently Housing Critic and the Legislature will be in session next week. Her defence is pathetic and one wonders if she would have tossed him under the bus so quickly if they were still together.

      No doubt she will have her defenders, just as every politician does. They will excuse her involvement in the spending and blame her husband. Apparently keeping track of household spending was beyond her ability or something for which an MLA simply doesn't have time. I guess she just assumed he was paying for the trips out of a bonus for being such a good socialist. Perhaps they should look a little longer back in the books and see if their Cuban honeymoon was paid for by PHS.

      I have read the audit report twice now and it still amazes me that even at their harshest my criticisms of PHS were short of the mark. Their sloppy accounting efforts to hide spending like this were possibly used to hide the "missing" salary from the top two executives: until the last year or two there were two employees of PHS making between $159,999 & $199,999 and four below that threshold and over $100,000. Now there are six people earning between $100,000 & $159,999 and Townsend did note that his "base" salary is $142,000 giving hi wiggle room for additional revelations.

      There are some very worried people working in management of some DES "non-profit" groups. They're trying to arrange for friendly accountants to fix their numbers and hoping they don't get a audited before things are rearranged. What they have to do is hide administrative costs more effectively than it appears PHS managed to do. Bureaucrats in healthcare & education are masters of the art of hiding administrative costs under frontline services, perhaps hiring executives from there rather than BC Housing would have been a smart move.

      Canadian Xpat

      Mar 20, 2014 at 11:23pm

      It seems strange that a married couple (at the time) wasn't sharing financial information. Do any of the straight's readers go on mysterious vacations with no billing information? She must have known something.

      condo$

      Mar 21, 2014 at 12:56am

      ok, so everyone knows that a report can be either good or bad. it all depends on what the intent is. this time, the intent was a bad report. why? it's about condos in the dtes. governments and developers want condos in the dtes. this safe injection site is not meshing well with the plans for condos. so write a report that discredits the society even though you aren't really sure it's true...so you better cya with the "it's not clear if the public paid for the trip".