Council candidate Benoit faces legal action over campaign finance rules
St. George’s ward hopeful failed to claim expenditures for website and Facebook advertising
The Niagara compliance audit committee for the City of St. Catharines has voted to commence legal proceedings against St. George’s ward candidate Jason Benoit after an independent auditor concluded he contravened the province’s campaign finance rules during the 2022 municipal election.
Josh Epstein, a senior manager in MNP’s forensics and litigation support group based in Toronto, presented audit results at a hearing Tuesday evening at St. Catharines city hall.
A report said Benoit likely violated the Municipal Elections Act by submitting financial statements indicating he had no campaign contributions or expenses despite using the Wix website-building service and Facebook advertising.
The committee voted 3-2 in support of legal action.
The next steps include selecting a lawyer licensed by the Law Society of Ontario to conduct the prosecution in a timely manner if, in the prosecutor’s legal opinion, there are reasonable and probable grounds of a conviction.
Penalties could include a fine of up to $25,000, ineligibility to vote or run in the next election and up to six months in prison.
Benoit told the committee he made mistakes as a first-time candidate who filed his disclosure under duress at the deadline as his wife endured health issues related to a miscarriage and sepsis.
His wife, Niagara Catholic District School Board trustee Natalia Benoit, had a similar audit hearing in January, but the committee chose not to pursue legal action.
Given the opportunity, Jason Benoit corrected errors and, because he was nowhere near the campaign spending limit of $18,000, told the committee “no harm had been committed.”
The auditor’s report found Benoit had spent $404.14 on Facebook advertising and $144.10 for using Wix to build his campaign website.
Benoit told the auditors he didn’t know he had to report expenses paid by himself. In addition, he said his wife set up his campaign website, and he thought there was no cost.
St. Catharines resident Ann-Marie Zammit, the complainant, said ignorance isn’t a valid reason for failure to follow the law.
“There are multiple sources of information available to all candidates, their agents and the general public,” Zammit said. “None of this is a secret. There were many firsttime candidates running, my husband included, and they all filed financial statements with accuracy according to the rules set out in the act.
“Mr. Benoit didn’t run his campaign in a vacuum. He had every resource available to him, and he had the ability to ask questions.”
Zammit said the campaign package provided by the city clerk to candidates included the maximum amount of contributions they could make to their campaigns, and that page, among many, required a signature to show they had read and understood it.
“If candidates can simply opt to ignore key elements of the act, not open a separate campaign bank account, not track or claim personal contributions, claim zero expenses, then those with a lot of money can and will have an unfair advantage in future elections.”
Benoit took issue with Zammit’s complaint because she doesn’t live in the ward.
“A garbage can probably could have entered the race and beat me, which I understand isn’t necessarily the whole point of it, but why would anybody who doesn’t even live in the ward think about asking about a candidate’s financials?”
He also said he believes Zammit filed complaints against him and three school trustee candidates that included his wife because they were “faithful Catholics” who offended Zammit’s personal sense of justice.
Zammit dismissed the remark, saying she was raised Catholic. She also said the complaint had nothing to do with religion.