Clark’s plan for panel to review political funding to be unveiled
Premier Christy Clark will announce a plan Monday to form an independent panel on political financing, as she attempts to address criticism of her B.C. Liberal party over corporate fundraising and lobbyist donations.
The proposal, which Clark is expected to unveil at the legislature, involves appointing a panel of nonpartisan experts to review B.C.’s political finance system as often as every two electoral cycles, and report back findings and recommendations directly to the legislative assembly.
But it won’t change the fundraising rules before the May 9 provincial election.
The panel is expected to take submissions on things like setting donation limits, banning corporate and union donations, and other reforms. It could also examine the bills to reform political donations that have already been introduced into the legislature by the B.C. NDP, B.C. Greens and independent MLA Vicki Huntington. The NDP bill already calls for something similar, in the form of a “review panel” that would investigate reforms to political financing should New Democrats win the election.
The move comes after Elections B.C. launched a probe into how often political parties have accepted donations from lobbyists, who then billed the companies or unions they represented. That practice, known as indirect donations, is illegal under B.C.’s Elections Act.
Chief Electoral Officer Keith Archer at first said he’d conduct the review, but then Friday issued a statement saying Elections B.C. had turned over the case to the RCMP because his non-partisan election agency was concerned about maintaining its appearance of neutrality while administering the May 9 election.
Clark is expected to make the pitch for reform Monday when her government introduces a bill that would require political parties to disclose their donor list every two weeks. That bill, which Clark has telegraphed for weeks, has already been assailed by the opposition as inadequate because it fails to address the influence of corporate and union donations, and does not halt the pricey fundraising events in which Clark sells access to herself and her top ministers in exchange for party contributions.
The premier’s pitch for a political finance commission would require the co-operation of her political opponents, the NDP and Greens.