REFERENDUM ADVERTISERS MUST IDENTIFY THEMSELVES: MITCHELL

I want to clarify a few points about referendum advertising pursuant to the Electoral system Referendum Act.

A “referendum advertiser” means any individual, corporation, or organization that intends to incur or has incurred referendum expenses during the referendum period.

There can be two kinds of referendum advertisers; registered and unregistered.

An individual, a corporation or an organization including a political party can be an unregistered referendum advertiser supporting one or the other of the possible answers to the referendum question.

An unregistered referendum advertiser can only incur a maximum of $1000 in referendum expenses. However, an association of unregistered advertisers may collectively incur referendum expenses of up to $10,000.

Unregistered referendum advertisers can only accept and use contributions from individuals who are ordinarily resident in the Province.

An individual is ordinarily resident in the place where they live and to which they intend to return when absent. An individual can have only one place of ordinary residence at a time.

Registered referendum advertisers that have received public money cannot accept or use any other money.

All referendum advertisers must identify themselves in any referendum advertising they place and must indicate they authorized the advertising. Gerard Mitchell, Referendum Commissioner