Liberals introduce bill in bid to wrangle political action committees

The Alberta Liberals have introduced a private member’s bill to crack down on political action committees.

House leader David Swann introduced Bill 214 on Thursday. If passed, it would define PACs and require they register with Elections Alberta and follow the same financial disclosure rules as other political entities.

It would also impose spending and contribution limits and ban out-of-province donations, and includes anti-collusion measures.

Liberal Leader David Khan stood alongside Swann on Thursday to speak to reporters about the bill, and said he would stack it against any legislation the NDP puts forward.

The government confirmed there’s legislation coming Monday that will include PAC regulations.

Swann said he’d likely support the NDP bill as long as it contains all the critical sections, but he’s unhappy it has taken so long to come forward.

“The main thing is we get this done, and we get it done soon,” Swann said.

A survey by the privacy commissioner has found that Albertans believe strongly in protecting privacy and the right to access information.

The survey, conducted in October, showed 95 per cent of respondents believe it’s important to protect the privacy of personal information.

However, only 27 per cent felt more secure about the privacy of their personal information today than they did five years ago.

According to the survey, the top issues were identity theft and fraud, hacking and email phishing, and government employees snooping on private information.