DONATION BAN TALK WON’T DRAG ON, WEAVER INSISTS
Green leader pins delay in introducing legislation on Clark dragging her feet
When the New Democrats and the Greens struck their power-sharing deal in late May, a prime intention was to expedite an early session of the legislature to begin the process of campaign finance reform.
“The legislature shall be recalled within a month of the swearing in of a B.C. NDP government,” said the text of the agreement signed May 30 by the 44 MLAs from the two parties.
Among the provisions was a commitment “that legislation will be introduced in the first sitting of the legislature to ban corporate and union donations, and place limits on individual donations.”
The two parties have now let slide the target for recall of the house until an unspecified date in early September, which will be almost four months since the election.
Plus the New Democrats have lately indicated that the agenda for the session may not be precisely as advertised, including the bill to rein in political contributions.
“You will see some enabling legislation where you won’t see all the detail of the final product in the legislation in the fall,” New Democrat Carole James told Rob Shaw of The Vancouver Sun last week.
“The example of that will be electoral reform. We’ll have legislation come forward that will enable the process to begin, that will start the public consultations. Probably the same for union and corporate donations. But they (the legislation) won’t be finalized until that public consultation has occurred.”
Meaning, presumably, that the promise would not be fully enacted until the 2018 session of the legislature. Nor is that a departure from the language of the agreement, which promised only that legislation would be “introduced” — not necessarily enacted in full — in the first session under the NDP.
But if any of this concerns the NDP’s partners in powersharing, it doesn’t show in the public comments of Green Leader Andrew Weaver.
On the delay in recalling the house, he mainly blames Premier Christy Clark for taking so long to face a confidence vote in the legislature.
“We had always intended to come back in early June, which is what the premier initially indicated,” he told me during an interview on Voice of B.C. on Shaw TV.
Instead, Clark didn’t face the music until the end of June and Horgan wasn’t able to work out a date for the handover until almost another three weeks had passed.
“Now with July 18 being when cabinet is sworn in we agreed with John Horgan,” Weaver continued, referring to the revised date for recalling the legislature. “Have it right after Labour Day. There’s not much point calling it in August. They need some time. They haven’t had a chance to look at the transition binders and so forth.”
Nor is Weaver concerned that his NDP partners would attempt further delays in implementing the meat of campaign finance reform.
“My understanding is that the bill would be introduced and it would be passed in the fall,” the Green leader assured me. “What may not be passed is a specific number, like the number that would limit the individual donations.
“The NDP have said that they would seek advice from the chief electoral officer, and that may take a bit. But there will be legislation, I’m convinced of that — that may exclude some stuff which is sent to order in council.”
The New Democrats are expected to resort to orders in council wherever possible to implement their agenda. Orders, which draw on the existing regulatory powers of government, are executed with the stroke of a pen at the cabinet table and without need of a vote in the legislature.
The timing of how the NDP proceeds on campaign reform is critical to the Greens. The party stopped taking union and corporate donations last September, while both the Liberals and New Democrats continued to do so.
Weaver is already on record as urging B.C. Liberals and the New Democrats to voluntarily stop taking big money donations in advance of implementation of the legislative ban.
“There is no reason why any B.C. political party should be accepting (those) donations,” he said in a statement earlier this month. “Now is the time to end this practice while we move toward legislation on this file.”
But if the New Democrats take their time in legislating and/or regulating donations, it would provide more leeway for the major parties to go on fundraising in the oldfashioned, big-money way.
Given the attitude of the two main parties — that it will be business as usual until the business is outlawed — Weaver needs a fallback option once the house convenes in September.
Have the Greens considered asking the NDP to make the ban on donations effective the day legislation is introduced as opposed to waiting until it is finally enacted by the house?
“We haven’t negotiated that level of specificity,” he replied.
“But you can bet that we will be negotiating that level of specificity. I think dragging it on serves no one’s interest if you’re dragging it until you get enough money in your coffers.
“We’re going to get to this, and we’re going to make sure that it passes early in the session.”
He should try at least. But this could also be the first test of what happens when Weaver asks the NDP for something that is not set out in the black-and-white language of the power-sharing agreement.
There is no reason why any B.C. political party should be accepting (big money) donations.
ANDREW WEAVER, Green leader