GOLFING FOR $$
Critics teed off over Surrey First party’s corporate fundraising tourney
An invite-only golf tournament soliciting corporate donations for the mayor of Surrey’s party is on-side with the letter of the law, but at least one critic calls it “out of bounds” with the spirit of B.C.’s new campaign finance rules.
The “Mayor Linda Hepner’s Annual Mayor’s Invitational” event is set for today at White Rock’s Hazelmere Golf and Country Club. Hepner’s Surrey First party has been soliciting corporate donations including $25,000 “gold sponsors” which comes with “dinner seating at the Mayor’s table for your foursome,” according to the event’s sponsorship material, which was obtained by Postmedia.
But despite new campaign finance legislation brought in last year by the B.C. NDP intended to “keep big money out of politics,” the Surrey First fundraiser can still accept unlimited corporate donations less than four months before the October municipal election, Elections B.C. confirmed Wednesday.
Thursday’s golf tournament was described by Hepner in the sponsorship package’s signed letter of invitation, as “a fantastic opportunity to network with businesses and community leaders.” The package says 144 “business and community leaders” were invited “to enjoy a personal networking afternoon” with the mayor.
Surrey First officials including Coun. Tom Gill, the party’s 2018 mayoral candidate, emphasized the party was playing within election finance rules on Thursday’s tournament.
But when asked whether Surrey First’s fundraising activities were consistent with the spirit of the legislation intended to get “big money” out of politics, Gill said: “We’ve made every effort to ensure that we’re currently on-side, and my expectation is that we will continue to be on-side.”
“If there’s some ambiguity in terms of this issue, it’s the role of the minister to be able to fix those issues,” Gill said. “And I’d encourage the provincial government to fix the ambiguity that they’re faced with in terms of the current legislation ... I think that some things, when they’re expedited, they have pieces that they didn’t consider or were ill-considered, and I think this is probably one of those examples. In the efforts of expediency, perhaps, a few of the doors weren’t closed ... Our team is very well aware of what they can and can’t do.”
Last year, the B.C. NDP brought in legislation to ban corporate and union donations in local election campaigns, and set an annual limit of $1,200 on personal donations to a party and its endorsed candidates.
But news emerged in April that an apparent loophole in the legislation meant the new rules did not apply to money raised for party operations, only election expenses. At the time, Vancouver’s Non-Partisan Association said they were open to raising funds in any way the law allowed, prompting rebuke from B.C. Minister of Municipal Affairs Selina Robinson.
“All the other parties have declared and they understand the intent of the law,” Robinson told Postmedia in April. “And we have one party that’s saying, ‘well no.’ ”
On April 27, Robinson signed an order in council amending the Local Election Campaign Financing Act regulations “to ensure that union and corporate donations cannot be used to fund any expenses of elector organizations during the year of a general local election,” according to a government press release.
However, even with Robinson’s April amendments, civic parties are still allowed to raise unlimited corporate and union donations in an election year, as long as the funds are only used for operational expenses incurred after election day on Oct. 20, said Louise Sawdon, manager of local elections campaign financing for Elections B.C. Operational expenses include “day-today” costs like staffing and office space.
“There is no limit and there’s no source restrictions for funds going into an operations account,” Sawdon said Wednesday.
In a statement Thursday, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs said: “Elector organizations are allowed to receive corporate and union donations to their operations account, however, in order to ensure a level playing field, amendments were made in April to ensure that any funds in that account cannot be used to fund any expenses of elector organizations during the year of a general local election.”
Gord Schoberg, a past financial agent for Surrey First who’s helping organize Thursday’s golf event, said they had sold sponsorships for the tournament and accepted corporate donations, but he couldn’t say how much.
“We’ve kept in really close touch with Elections B.C.,” he said. “We’ve been really clear about what we’re doing, so there’s no surprises.”
But even if Thursday’s tournament is still on-side with B.C.’s amended campaign finance legislation, Dermod Travis said, “It’s a slap in the face to every reform that’s been brought about in the past 12 months, they’re thumbing their nose.”
“It’s out of bounds,” said Travis, the executive director of the democracy watchdog Integrity B.C., who applauded the B.C. NDP for bringing in campaign finance reform. “You come back to what the intent and the spirit of that legislation was, and it was not to sell gold sponsorships at $25,000 to people who can afford to pay $25,000.”
“Because the optics of that,” he said, “stinks.”