New limits on municipal campaign funding could reduce developers’ clout

EDMONTON New limits on campaign donations could dramatically change how Edmonton city elections are funded, reducing developers’ clout.

Alberta Municipal Affairs released a new online survey on municipal campaign financing Wednesday, asking citizens if they would prefer “per donor/per year” limits.

That would mean a developer could not longer give up to $5,000 to a candidate in each race, as some seem to do now. He or she would be limited to $4,000 total — either given to one candidate or divided in smaller amounts between many.

“It helps the little guy, frankly,” Municipal Affairs Minister Shaye Anderson said Wednesday.

“It’s about levelling the playing field, about transparency and accountability,” he said.

The survey is running until July 31. Anderson said he hopes the changes can be tabled this fall.

The biggest changes are a proposal to ban corporate and union donations, and the associated new cap on individual donations. The survey also asks if Albertans want per campaign spending limits.

The survey also asks Albertans what they think of third-party advertising, which Quebec bans in municipal elections. The proposal floated in the survey would simply match existing rules, limiting spending to $150,000 in the year before the election.

The donation limits are everything Ward 1 Coun. Andrew Knack was hoping for. “That’s really good,” he said.

If someone gave $5,000 in every Edmonton municipal race, that would be $65,000 per year. The new limit would be $4,000 per year.

Currently, a lot of funding comes from a select group of companies, many of them developers. They tend to decide together which candidates to back, as Knack found out in 2013. Suddenly, he had more funding than he anticipated.

Ward 3 Coun. Jon Dziadyk received some of that support, too. He ran a mostly self-funded campaign against a well-funded incumbent and was the first challenger in years to succeed.

After his win, new supporters threw a fundraising lunch. It quickly covered the expenses.

Dziadyk said he was “humbled” by the donations, but supports the new limits: “We should look at ways to level the playing field.”