New rules coming for 2018 municipal election
On Oct. 20, area voters will go to the polls to elect a new mayor, city council, school board trustees and regional district area directors.
The election is a double-first for B.C.: it is the first election following a four-year term for municipal officials and it will be the first municipal election under the province’s new rules for campaign financing.
In 2013, municipal officials at the Union of British Columbia Municipalities conference in Vancouver voted more than 60 per cent support of increasing elected terms from three years to four years. The longer terms came into effect for the 2014 municipal election. Three-year terms were first introduced for the 1990 election as an increase from two years.
However, in 2013 the Liberal government declined to limit corporate and union donations to municipal election campaigns. In November this year the NDP government introduced legislation banning corporate and union donations and limiting donations from individuals to $1,200 per donor per year. It would also ban donations from out-of-province sources.
In November, Mayor Lyn Hall told The Citizen candidates will have to “work a little bit harder” to raise funds for their campaigns.
Hall spent $41,275 on his campaign in 2014, of which $16,200 came from corporations and $6,500 from unions. Mayoral candidate Don Zurowski spent $72,249.29, with $55,329.64 coming from corporations and the rest from individuals.
Hall said he thinks the changes are a positive move which will make it easier for first-time candidates to be competitive.
“Sometimes, they’re not in a position to raise as much money as an incumbent, so it should level that playing field,” he said.
Donations from unions were significant for five of the candidates elected to council in 2014.
Former United Steelworkers representative Frank Everitt received $15,400 from union sources, Jillian Merrick $7,000, Bri- an Skakun $4,399, Garth Frizzell $4,250 and Terri McConnachie $3,800.
Merrick said she’s happy with the changes, despite the role union funding played in her first campaign.
“I think that personhood is an important part of democracy,” she said.
“We don’t allow corporate entities or societies or unions to vote in elections ,and so we should hold some of the same principles to influence elections.”
The changes will probably mean Merrick’s next campaign will be run on a smaller scale.
“Fundraising and spending on elections swallows up a huge amount of time and probably the most stressful part is monitoring all that.”
Frizzell said he’s had donations from both corporations and unions at different times and the changes will probably play a bigger role in municipalities where slates of candidates run for council.
“I don’t see the unions or corporations actually being able to whip a vote or influence a vote as it stands right now in Prince George so the impact of this on us will be negligible,” Frizzell said. “It’ll change where the equilibrium is a little bit but I don’t think it’ll impact at all on how decisions are made at the council table.”
Albert Koehler spent $18,646.39 on his campaign and would like to see the amount candidates can spend limited to $15,000.
“At the moment, we don’t have a level playing field independent of the restrictions (on donations) coming from companies and unions and so on,” Koehler said.
He also said there are ways around the rules, such as taking money earned through a corporation and donating it as an individual.
“Someone can somehow get money into his or her account and to the outside it looks as if it’s all private money,” Koehler said.
Spending on campaigns for school board trustee was much lower. At $2,717, Trish Bella was the biggest spender and only $150 came from unions. Nearly 90 per cent of her campaign was self-financed.