Incumbent councillor’s fundraiser nixed due to ‘threats’ to restaurant
Several developers had been invited to event for planning committee member
An incumbent councillor candidate who was to be the recipient of campaign donations during a steak house lunch with bigwigs in the development industry says he has cancelled the event.
“There’s been threats and intimidation of the place where we were supposed to have it,” Jean Cloutier said Friday.
“That’s completely unacceptable in a democratic process and I’m very disappointed by that. All our campaign did is book space at Al’s Steakhouse. I am suspending that fundraising activity. I’m not doing it. I’m not postponing it. I’m not doing it whatsoever. As a matter of fact, I’m not doing any other fundraising activities. Anybody that wants to contribute to my campaign can go to the website and contribute to the campaign.”
Cloutier, one of six municipal election candidates in Alta Vista ward and a council planning committee member, said he would post a list of his donors on his website on Oct. 17 at 5 p.m. and he’s challenging other ward candidates to do the same.
“The key word in all of this has been perception versus fact and the fact is individuals contribute to our campaign, and I wanted to be crystal clear to all of the residents of Alta Vista so they can make an informed choice before they go to the polls on Oct. 22,” Cloutier said.
Several developers were invited to a lunch at Al’s Steakhouse Wednesday in support of Cloutier’s campaign. There were 73 names on the email sent Wednesday by Peter Hume, the former Alta Vista councillor who is now Cloutier’s campaign manager, and most of the list is a who’s-who of the development industry. Hume, now part of the development industry himself as an urban planning consultant, told the group personal cheques could be made out to Cloutier’s campaign.
A manager at Al’s Steakhouse wasn’t available for comment immediately.
This is the first election with a province-mandated ban on corporate and union donations to municipal political campaigns. Developers and union presidents still can donate personal funds to campaigns as individual Ontario residents.
Candidates must disclose donations they receive as part of campaign finance filings to the city, but that information isn’t usually made public until long after the winners are sworn in.
The development industry, by far, has the most to win and lose from decisions made by city council, but city hall does business with all kinds of companies from technology firms to banks to caterers.
Jeff Leiper and Tobi Nussbaum, incumbent councillor candidates in Kitchissippi and Rideau-Rockcliffe wards, respectively, will try to get through the election campaign without receiving donations from land developers. They are also members of this term’s planning committee.
Each has only one other candidate running against him.
“What I have promised is I’m not going to accept any donations from someone I can reasonably ascertain is from the development industry,” Leiper said. His donation webpage has a checkbox for people to confirm they’re “not a property developer.”
Of the roughly 90 donations that have come in so far, Leiper said he either knows or knows of each donor. “None of them are the names of people I know who are involved in the development industry,” he said.
“There’s no point in someone who’s a developer trying to donate anonymously to somebody ’s campaign who has asked not to have developer donations.”
Leiper said he hadn’t received a donation from a small-business owner in the ward, but would accept it.
“Every two weeks, we make decisions that are directly tied to the fortunes of developers who are doing hundreds of millions of dollars in business in the city every year,” Leiper said, referring to the schedule of planning committee meetings. “That warrants special consideration by candidates. Candidates have to think through very carefully their approach to that particular sector.”
As for unions, Leiper said his donors might be members of unions, but he hadn’t seen one from a union executive.
Nussbaum said his strategy was to closely monitor personal donations and check them against names in city hall’s lobbyist registry since he might not know every single name.
It’s not a perfect way to check donors’ connections to the corporate world, but Nussbaum said at least he was making an effort.
“The intention is to try and avoid a perceived or actual conflict of interest,” Nussbaum said. “It’s both for personal reasons and for reasons of wanting to build public trust. I think there is a concern out there that the development industry has an oversized influence at city hall. I certainly hear a lot of that at the doors.”
Nussbaum said he would treat union leaders in the same way.
He didn’t like hearing that developers were organizing lunches for other candidates.
“It concerns me because I worry that it erodes the public’s trust in political representatives being able to decide on issues impartially,” Nussbaum said.
While corporate and union donations aren’t allowed for individual candidate campaigns, corporations and unions can register as third-party advertisers to support or oppose any campaign. Three third-party advertisers had signed up for the Ottawa municipal election as of Friday afternoon.