A Vision Vancouver city councillor is suggesting penalizing political parties as a solution to close "a gaping loophole" in election campaign financing rules.
Coun. Geoff Meggs' recommendation is focused on amending rules that currently don't place any responsibility on parties to ensure their candidates file a financial disclosure statement at city hall after an election campaign.
"What we could do is require elector organizations to be responsible for all candidates who apply under their slate, so it would have an impact and the discipline would extend to the elector organization," Meggs said. "Something like that would do the trick."
The level of discipline or penalty that would be meted out to a political party is still a question. But Meggs believes the present rules have to be overhauled.
His suggestion comes after he and fellow Vision councillors chastised failed NPA candidate Francis Wong last week for missing two deadlines to file his campaign documents. Wong, who filed documents Tuesday, received a $500 penalty and was barred from running for office in the 2014 election. His party was not penalized for the delay in filing.
Meggs and his Vision colleagues are concerned that a candidate could purposely not file a disclosure and take the penalties to avoid disclosing sums and donors to the public. The concern is heightened by the fact political parties run expensive campaigns in Vancouver, topping out at more than $5 million when combining the expenses of the NPA, Vision and COPE in the 2011 election. Historically, the bulk of donations come from unions and developers, many of whom do regular business with the city and require council to approve contracts and developments. Wong and NPA president John Moonen refuted Vision's "conspiracy" theories about the delay in filing. Wong's reasons for the delay included going through a divorce after the election, collecting bank statements and being out of the country for one of the deadlines.
Vision councillors focused on Wong, despite six other independent candidates identified by the city clerk's office who were penalized after failing to meet both deadlines. "It's quite a concern where you have a member of a slate who doesn't file because we don't have a total picture of what that slate spent," said Meggs, adding that he was not disrespecting the value of an independent candidate's run for office.
The number of candidates who failed to file financial statements related to the 2011 election was the highest in a decade. In 2002, three candidates failed to file, four missed the deadlines in 2005 and three in 2008.
Despite Meggs' desire to close the loophole in the campaign financing rules, the ultimate power to make change rests with the provincial government. Two years ago, the Local Government Elections Task Force made 31 recommendations to government for electoral reform, including caps on fundraising, spending limits and banning union and corporate donations. Vancouver city council renewed its call for these changes in January.
None of the recommendations, however, focused on penalizing political parties if a candidate fails to file financial documents after an election. "It is something I am going to pursue because I think there needs to be more work done on that front," Meggs added.
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