Clark orders party to routinely post information on donations

Premier Christy Clark has ordered her B.C. Liberal party to publicly release information every two weeks on the political donations it receives, starting in January.

The premier made the move because legislation to speed up B.C.’s once-a-year disclosure of political donations is not complete enough to be introduced in the summer session of the legislature, Finance Minister Mike de Jong said Thursday.

The information will be updated every 10 business days on the party’s website, with the date, name of the donor and donation amount, said Liberal party spokeswoman Jillian Stead.

Clark had asked Elections B.C. to prepare options to increase the disclosure of political donations. The independent electoral agency returned with options that would require changes to the law by the end of this year in order to be in place before the May 2017 provincial election.

After the current brief summer session, the legislature is not expected to sit this fall.

B.C. New Democratic Party Leader John Horgan said he feels no pressure to direct his party to follow suit and start similar disclosures.

He said the Liberals should instead pass a private member’s bill that he already has before the house to ban corporate and union donations to political parties.

“It’s nonsense, absolute nonsense for Mr. De Jong to call us back in the middle of summer to address tinkering around the edges of the real-estate crisis and then say we’re too busy to bring in legislation to ban big donations from unions and corporations,” Horgan said.

“That’s poppycock.”