Laudable reforms marred by loopholes

The Wynne government’s political advertising and election finance reform proposals are a mixed bag. They do a number of things right, but don’t deal with two of the most important issues that tarnish government credibility and increase citizen cynicism. Let’s first look at what the proposals do right. They reduce personal annual donation limits from just under $10,000 to $1,200. The Liberals first proposed a cap of $1,525, but wisely saw the benefit of further reductions. This change will go some distance toward reducing the risk of wealthy citizens buying influence, or being perceived as doing so.

That reduction will put a dent in all party treasuries, so to offset that the reforms call for increasing the pervote public subsidy parties receive from a planned $2.26 to $2.71. Based on 2014 results the formula would see the Green party getting $630,000, the NDP receiving $3.1 million, the PCs $4.09 million and the Liberals $5.06 million.

Also, under the new regulations in Bill 201, corporate and union advertising would be banned. And government advertising would be banned in the 60 days leading up to an election. There would be a $100,000 ceiling on third-party advertising during an election campaign and a $600,000 cap on advertising in the six months leading up to an election.

So far, so good. These are sensible reforms that will go some distance to restoring a degree of credibility around election financing and advertising. In fact, this reform package could be a home run for a government badly in need of one. Except … There are two big loopholes remaining. First, the government did not ban cash-for-access fundraising. That’s where affluent individuals and companies can write big cheques (think $10,000 and up) and gain access to senior government ministers, including the premier. The Liberals have a propensity for this sort of event and, in fact, it was them being outed on a couple of them that led to demands for reform and the government’s commitment to clean house. This has to be stopped. The optics of big corporations wining and dining senior government officials, then bidding on projects in many cases, is polar opposite of common sense and public opinion. It smacks of the sort of entitlement many people think the Liberals live by.

Then there’s the partisan advertising debacle. The Liberals were wrong to gut the Government Advertising Act by removing the auditor general’s authority to block partisan pitches paid for with tax dollars. As we’ve said in this space before, this is a credibility killer on the key issue of integrity and transparency.

It’s not too late to fix these glaring shortcomings. The Wynne government must not make the mistake of letting them end up in the final legislation.