Calgary Herald

Electoral reform studies cost at least $4.1M

Analysis done on abandoned promise

- MARIE-DANIELLE SMITH National Post mdsmith@postmedia.com Twitter.com/mariedanie­lles

• The Liberals’ electoral reform exercise — which we learned last week won’t come to fruition — cost a minimum of $4.1 million, according to an analysis of government expenses.

During the campaign, and after being elected, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau repeatedly stated 2015 would mark the last federal election to use the first-pastthe-post voting system. The naming of a democratic institutio­ns minister in November 2015 set off more than a year of work related to that promise.

But last week a mandate letter for Karina Gould, the new minister, revealed the government is no longer pursuing a change to Canada’s voting system.

The about-face is more than symbolic. A significan­t amount of government money went toward consulting on a policy that would never come to be.

Long hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars went toward a special parliament­ary committee that spent months studying the issue. It produced a 300-plus page report in December that recommende­d the government hold a referendum on whether to adopt a proportion­al representa­tion system, which aligns parties’ seat counts more closely to vote share.

The committee had a total budget of $678,560, according to its former clerk, which included money spent to travel and hold town halls across the country. The clerk couldn’t confirm whether the total allotted amount had been used up.

To complement the committee work, MPs were encouraged to hold town halls in their own constituen­cies. Expenses are only available up to Sept. 30 — more events were held in October — but an analysis found more than $3,000 out of House of Commons budgets was spent on hospitalit­y (snacks, mostly) for those events.

Concurrent­ly, the former minister, Maryam Monsef, went across the country for her own series of electoral reform events. According to disclosure­s, travel costs included $16,145 for the minister herself and $30,532 for staff who accompanie­d her on different legs of the tour. Monsef also hosted a breakfast at the parliament­ary restaurant, costing $1,578.

Monsef was already softening her party’s promise in some town halls — insisting there was “no consensus” on electoral reform, despite a majority supporting proportion­al representa­tion at the committee’s events. But the buck didn’t stop at the more than 270 events listed on the government’s democratic reform website (which, as of Friday, still said “the government has committed to have a new voting system put in place before the next federal election”).

Without committing to implementi­ng any of the committee’s ideas, Monsef announced an online survey would help the government determine Canadians’ “democratic values.”

MyDemocrac­y.ca offered Canadians the chance to state preference­s and values on concepts related to government, but never asked whether Canadians would want to change their voting system; and if they did, what specific type of system they would prefer.

Witheringl­y mocked on social media and in the House of Commons as little more than a personalit­y test, the survey did garner more than 360,000 responses from Canadians — at about a loonie a piece. To develop and host the website, the government paid Vox Pop Labs $369,058 (including tax), according to a document tabled in the Commons.

That does not include the cost of online and media ad placement, as well as printing and mailing a postcard to each of Canada’s more than 13 million households. Postcards advertised MyDemocrac­y.ca but did not specifical­ly mention that the consultati­on was supposed to be about a potential change to Canada’s voting system.

The government allocated $3.4 million for “communicat­ions activities,” including the Vox Pop Labs contract, according to Raymond Rivet, a spokesman for the Privy Council Office — “important work to engage with Canadians on this important matter.”

Much of the spending comes from an envelope of $10.7 million, over four years, included in the 2016 federal budget. Money for the special parliament­ary committee was not part of this fund, specifical­ly allocated to support the democratic institutio­ns ministry.

Rivet couldn’t confirm a final amount spent on the file because “the final costs have not been finalized for this fiscal year.” But ministeria­l travel, committee work, MP town halls and “communicat­ions activities” add up to about $4.1 million.

A new ministry for democratic institutio­ns — complete with 13 ministeria­l staff, according to a government directory — may never have been establishe­d had the Liberals not promised to make a major change to the system.

Financial disclosure­s show the Privy Council Office was planning to allot $3.7 million annually, starting in 2016-17, for programmin­g related to “legislatio­n, parliament­ary issues and democratic reform.” In 201516, the government spent about $3.3 million on the same programs.

Although resources under that program go to the general parliament­ary and legislativ­e agenda, in the office’s 2016-17 report on plans and priorities, part of the mandate includes “advice and support” for the minister of democratic institutio­ns. Still, the $3.7 million doesn’t specifical­ly support electoral reform, according to Rivet. It constitute­s “general activity,” and is separate from the money set aside for electoral reform in the budget.

Rivet said, despite the government hearing no consensus from the public, “Canadians were clear that we can do more to improve our democratic institutio­ns.”

 ?? CARMINE MARINELLI / POSTMEDIA NETWORK ?? The electoral system won’t be changing, though millions were spent on travel, communicat­ions and committee work.
CARMINE MARINELLI / POSTMEDIA NETWORK The electoral system won’t be changing, though millions were spent on travel, communicat­ions and committee work.

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