PC party hoping for help to pay off debt

Treasurer asks constituency groups for funds

CALGARY As the provincial Progressive Conservative party winds down, it is calling on its constituency associations to help pay off its half-million dollar debt.

Following the July vote of PC and Wildrose members to join together in the new United Conservative Party, party treasurer William Stevenson sent a memo to constituency association presidents and financial agents, saying their help is needed to settle the outstanding debt.

According to the July 31 letter, the PC party’s debt stood at $1.5 million following the 2015 provincial election, which had been reduced to $684,000 by the time of the July 22 unity vote. The party expects the debt to be reduced to $500,000 once the PC’s funds had been applied.

Stevenson noted in the letter that the PC constituency associations have other options for what they do with their financial assets but said turning over their bank accounts to the PC party will help eliminate the debt and ensure the new UCP is in a position of strength.

“To help us do that, I urge all Progressive Conservative constituency associations to expedite the wind up of their CA and send their funds in to the central party,” said Stevenson.

Under the unification agreement, the PC and Wildrose parties continue to exist along with the new UCP, with all three parties governed by the UCP’s interim board. Stevenson serves on the board as the treasurer for all three parties.

But while there is overlap between the three entities, provincial law forbids the transfer of assets between parties, meaning neither Wildrose’s financial assets nor money raised by the UCP can be used to pay off the PC debt.

Len Thom, the former PC party president who is now vice-chairman of the UCP, said PC constituency associations have an estimated $800,000 in financial assets that can be utilized.

“A lot of that money is sort of frozen and so the best thing we think that can happen for money in constituency associations is to come back into the central bank account of the PCs and pay off that existing debt,” he said.

Janice Harrington, interim executive director of the UCP, said Friday that some associations have already turned over money to help settle the debt while others have indicated they will do so, although she could provide no figures.

The issue has arisen within the ranks of the PC party — which governed Alberta for four decades — in the past.

In 2013 while in government, the party scrapped a plan to take a 10 per cent cut of donations from constituency associations after it raised the ire of local PC officials.

However, Harrington, a former PC board member, said no Tory constituency associations have currently indicated they will refuse to give their financial assets to the party.

If the constituency association retains the money and is de-registered, the funds are turned over to the province.

The organization could also use the money for political purposes in the riding but would face restrictions, said Stevenson in his letter.

The memo asks all Tory constituency associations to decide by Sept. 16 which course of action it will follow.