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B.C. Premier Christy Clark arrives at the Legislative Assembly for question period on Wednesday.CHAD HIPOLITO/The Globe and Mail

B.C. Premier Christy Clark has not broken any conflict rules by participating in small, private fundraising events or by taking an extra salary from the B.C. Liberal Party, the province's conflict of interest commissioner has ruled.

The Globe and Mail revealed last week that the Premier receives an annual top-up to her salary of an additional $50,000. Word of the extra salary follows Globe and Mail reports of intimate, private political fundraisers attended by the Premier. In light of the reports, NDP MLA David Eby filed complaints with Conflict of Interest Commissioner Paul Fraser.

Mr. Eby has characterized the extra salary in the legislature as a "commission" and, in his complaint, he alleged the Premier had a direct interest in the donation she raised for her party. In his submission to Mr. Fraser, Mr. Eby noted the donations "may as well be passed directly to the premier . . . in an envelope" and he suggested her payment was money that was "laundered" through the Liberal Party.

Duff Conacher, of Democracy Watch, filed a separate complaint with the commissioner saying donations received at "exclusive" fundraising events should be classified as gifts or benefits that should not be accepted under conflict-of-interest rules.

Mr. Fraser rejected both claims.

He said there may be times when receiving political donations puts an MLA in a conflict or apparent conflict of interest, but that is usually a situation where the political candidate gets the donations for their personal campaign and there is an exchange for a favour.

"However, contributions to the party are different altogether," Mr. Fraser writes. "Such donations do not benefit members in a direct and particular way."

But Mr. Fraser noted that his job was to determine whether the Premier was in a conflict of interest under the current rules governing MLAs. He said his mandate does not allow him to make pronouncements on whether there should be a change to fundraising rules.

Mr. Fraser found that improving the B.C. Liberal Party's finances is a political benefit, not a private financial one. "Nor can the premier's leader's allowance paid to her by her party be said to create a private interest that is furthered by the premier's attendance at exclusive fundraisers," he wrote.

The ruling was tabled in the legislature late Wednesday evening. Premier Clark was unavailable for immediate comment but her office said the ruling spoke for itself.

Mr. Eby said he was disappointed by the ruling. "If anyone needed evidence for the need for reform now they have it.

"I'm disappointed but not surprised given our broken system."

Ms. Clark suggested last week that Mr. Eby's continued reference to her extra salary as a "commission" would be a problem for him if he repeated it outside the legal protections of the legislature.

Premier Clark has collected more than $277,000 from the provincial Liberal Party since 2011 to top up her government salary, the party disclosed last week.

In addition to her $195,000 salary as Premier, Ms. Clark has received an escalating annual amount from the Liberals – $50,000 for 2015 and this year.

The figures were released for the first time in response to a Globe and Mail report on the Premier's stipend.

The practice puts British Columbia in exclusive company: Only one other Premier, Saskatchewan's Brad Wall, receives such a payment. In Ontario, where quiet fundraisers have also garnered such negative attention that Premier Kathleen Wynne has ordered her ministers to cancel fundraisers and she has promised to ban corporate and union donations.

Premier Clark, however, has declined to entertain a ban on such donations – British Columbians go to the polls next May – and she has refused to end the kind of small, unpublicized fundraisers that critics like Mr. Eby say give corporations, lobbyists and others access to her after paying thousands to attend.

Premier Wynne has never received a party-funded top-up.

Mr. Fraser notes in his report that Mr. Eby ultimately "conceded" that it was "inaccurate" to describe Premier Clark's party-funded salary as a "commission.

"In my opinion, there is no convincing evidence or information to suggest that the Leader's Allowance is determined according to the success or failure of "exclusive" fundraising events in which the Premier participates. The Premier's private interest is not advanced by any particular donor or group of donors at these events. She cannot, therefore, be in an apparent conflict of interest in relation to those donors," he writes.

Mr. Fraser said a robust discussion about fundraising events, ticket prices and the disclosure of attendees "is a matter worthy of public ferment and debate."

Currently, there are no rules requiring the disclosure of any of those facts.

With reports from Justine Hunter in Victoria and Adrian Morrow in Toronto

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