Municipal election reforms a response to 2018 vote controversy
B.C.'s municipal elections next year will look a little different than the last time, with new rules that will likely affect things like union-funded electioneering and developers anonymously buying billboards.
The 2018 municipal elections were the first after the B.C. NDP government introduced stricter campaign finance rules, banning corporate and union donations and setting $1,200 donation limits.
The NDP proclaimed its 2017 reforms would end the “era of big money” in local and provincial elections, but the lead-up to the 2018 municipal elections featured confusion and controversy over what the new rules allowed.
Now, new amendments seek to address some of those issues, responding to “feedback we heard coming out of the 2018 local government elections,” said Municipal Affairs Minister Josie Osborne.
Although corporate donations were banned in 2017, the legislation apparently allowed parties to collect large corporate donations outside the campaign for “operational expenses.” Both the Surrey First party and the Non-Partisan Association drew criticism for accepting corporate donations for operational expenses in 2018, although the rules apparently allowed it.
The new changes will close that loophole, essentially subjecting all donations to a party, whether for operational or campaign purposes, to annual limits of $1,200 a donor.
Another controversy in 2018 centred on third-party advertising, after mysterious billboards popped up around Vancouver supporting mayoral candidate Hector Bremner. Because the billboards went up before the 29-day campaign period, there were no spending restrictions and no requirements for the source of funds to register with Elections B.C. The Globe and Mail later reported local developer Peter Wall spent $85,000 on the billboards.
The new rules will limit third-party advertisers to $1,200 “to limit the potential influence of large donors during the election,” last week's government announcement said. Also, during the 89 days before election day, “election advertising, like billboards or commercials, will have to say who is sponsoring it.”
Union donations were also banned before the 2018 election, but the Vancouver and District Labour Council was allowed to pay four union staffers to take time off their regular jobs to work full time for several weeks supporting the council's chosen slate. As Postmedia first reported in 2018, those staffers' wages did not technically count as campaign contributions, as long as their electioneering was conducted independently of the candidates' campaigns.
Now it appears the new rules might change that kind of paid participation. The Ministry of Municipal Affairs would not comment on specific examples, but sent a statement saying: “These amendments will clarify that if a person is paid for campaign activities, such as going door to door to distribute advertising materials or calling people on the phone, that will be captured, will be considered as part of their total advertising spending and must be reported in the financial/disclosure statements. Any paid staff working on behalf of the campaign must be compensated by the campaign directly.”
Although Vancouver Green Coun. Pete Fry was on the labour council's slate in 2018, he welcomed the new rules restricting how those kinds of organizations can use paid staff for political efforts. Labour organizations must be able to publicly endorse their preferred candidates, Fry said, and the more they can encourage their members to get out and volunteer, the better.
“But it's a different story if they're getting paid.
“When big money gets thrown into it ... that's where we need transparency,” said Fry, who has brought motions to Vancouver council calling for political finance reform.
“Whether it's a billboard with Hector Bremner's face on it, or a bunch of seconded union labour pounding the pavement, those both, I think, miss the mark.”
But Fry questioned why the new rules don't place the same financial reporting requirements on independent candidates as parties. Candidates who don't belong to a party will still be subject to the same $1,200 donation limit. But while parties must file annual financial reports with Elections B.C., independents only need to file after an election.
That's an issue, Fry said, because voters should have transparency on which donations a party or independent candidate accepts before election day, not after.
Both Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart and Ken Sim, who finished a close second in 2018's mayoral race, have declared their intention to run again as independents in 2022. Sim has said he raised more than $420,000 last year, with a voluntary $1,200 donation limit in place.
Meanwhile, the staffer currently working for Stewart's 2022 re-election effort agreed with Fry on the need for transparency before election day.
Mark Hosak, executive director of Team Kennedy Stewart, said: “There's no way in heck we're OK with the idea that you go into an election not knowing who donated in intervening years.”
“We think all the rules should be the same, regardless of if you're running one candidate or several candidates,” Hosak said. “There should be zero room for dark money in our politics.”