Do free T-shirts, cheap drinks and free admission cross a line?

Voter incentive plans in Waterloo Region may have contravened the Municipal Elections Act

WATERLOO REGION — Two events aimed at encouraging people to vote in Monday’s municipal elections are falling afoul of the Municipal Elections Act.

The City of Waterloo clerk’s office is investigating an event that plans to offer students free T-shirts and $2 drinks if they participate in a “student voting movement” and march together to the election polls on Monday.

In Kitchener, TheMuseum has been told it has broken the Municipal Elections Act by offering free admission for people who vote.

Olga Smith, Waterloo’s city clerk and director of legislative services, says her office is monitoring the Waterloo plan, which involves a bar owned by one of the candidates for Ward 7 — the uptown ward on Waterloo council.

“It appears it is a contravention of Section 90 of the Municipal Elections Act,” Smith said in an interview, because they offer incentives of value.

She has notified Waterloo Regional Police. The owner of the bar where the event begins is Devon McKenzie. He is one of five candidates aiming to represent the uptown neighbourhood on Waterloo city council.

Reached by email, McKenzie said the student vote initiative “is not run by or organized by me or any business with which I am affiliated.”

TheMuseum in downtown Kitchener announced Thursday it would give free admission to Waterloo Region residents next Wednesday, if they say they voted in Monday’s election.

“While I applaud your creative effort at trying to encourage eligible electors to vote, you’ve unfortunately contravened the Municipal Elections Act,” Kitchener city clerk Christine Tarling wrote to TheMuseum’s CEO David Marskell on Thursday.

Marskell replied: “Really? No intent to influence other than to have people become informed and vote.”

In the section on bribery and corruption, the act says it’s an offence directly or indirectly, to “offer, give, lend, or promise or agree to give or lend any valuable consideration, in connection with the exercise or nonexercise of an elector’s vote.”

Violators can be imprisoned for up to six months or fined up to $5,000.

In Waterloo, Smith’s concern stems from something called the “Student Voting Movement,” which was advertised on the website www.votewaterloo.com. The website has since gone dark.

Students are told to go to Beck-

y’s Apartment and The Pub on King “to receive your free Student Voting Movement T-shirt and your voting declaration forms.”

(A voter declaration form is a document signed by people who want to vote but don’t have identification showing they live in the municipality. They are available at all polling stations.)

The instructions continue: “Together, we will head to the polls @City Hall (100 Regina St. South). After, 3 venues in uptown Waterloo will be open to the group serving $2 drinks for the remainder of the day and evening.”

McKenzie said he did agree to let the parking lot of Becky’s Apartment be used as a meeting place for the group.

“My business will not be open during those hours and is not usually open during the day. Two-dollar drinks available in the evening are a special available to anyone. That special has been offered in (the) past by my venues and many other venues. It is not unusual pricing.”

McKenzie also said he was “pleased to see an under-represented demographic becoming engaged in a municipal election.”

Smith said the website that promised the $2 drinks and free T-shirts appears to be operated by XL Lifestyle, a Toronto-based company that organizes pub crawls, St. Patrick’s Day parties and other events for students across Canada, including in Waterloo.

“I am working with our City Solicitor to reach out to XL Lifestyle to obtain more information on this matter,” Smith said in a letter to all candidates. The company did not respond to the Record’s requests for comment.

In 2014 and 2015, XL Lifestyle partnered with the City of Waterloo to operate a large tent facility for a St. Patrick’s Day party on Seagram Drive. The facility was an attempt to contain the spontaneous party that took over Ezra Avenue. The city sponsored the tent for a total of $25,000 over the two years.

However, the city withdrew its support in 2016. The tent meant that the physical boundaries of the party had grown, making it more difficult to police.