Four Metro Vancouver area councillors urge more B.C. oversight of municipal spending

Four Metro Vancouver area councillors have launched a petition asking the British Columbia government for closer oversight of municipal spending in the province, amid a police investigation into alleged misuse of a city hall gift card program.Richmond’s Kash Heed, Daniel Fontaine and Paul Minhas from New Westminster and Burnaby’s Richard Lee say in an open letter to Premier David Eby that the province needs to either reinstate a specific office to oversee municipal spending or expand the auditor general’s mandate to cover it.The councillors cite media reports that hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent on gift cards in Richmond, B.C., with little oversight, as well as multiple instances of “questionable expenditures” at the Metro Vancouver Regional District.