Another year at council, another discussion about getting the big money out of city politics.
And, yes, the politicians wanting to get the big money out of politics were all elected by their parties blowing through millions, although Green Party Coun. Adriane Carr would argue she wasn't awash in cash with her party spending more than $46,000 in the 2014 campaign.
For the record, Vision Vancouver and the NPA collected more than $2 million each for last fall’s run. At least that's what the parties reported prior to the election. We'll find out the final numbers in a couple of months.
Anyway, Vision Coun. Andrea Reimer got the debate started Wednesday at city hall by introducing a motion to get her colleagues to send another message to Victoria that big money has no place in Vancouver politics.
City hall watchers might be thinking: Hasn't she and council already talked about this, like, a million times?
Maybe not a million but, as Reimer noted in her motion, the council-of-the day in 2005, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2014 sent formal requests to the provincial government requesting changes to the Vancouver Charter to allow Vancouver to make its own rules around campaign finance.
So why bother again?
Because, as Reimer pointed out, the provincial government set up a special committee of MLAs in October 2014 to examine the issue of campaign finance reform. But the terms of reference for the committee do not allow the committee to consider limits to contributions or bans on donations from corporations or unions.
So Reimer's request was that council let Victoria know that it wanted the terms amended to allow the committee to examine limits on contributions and bans on donations from corporations or unions.
The committee, by the way, is only looking at expense limits.
“This would be a significant leap forward in our advocacy on this effort, and I hope that we can have unanimous support,” said Reimer as she kicked off the debate. “The single largest issue affecting public confidence in the electoral process is the lack of rules around campaign finance. It’s like Jupiter eclipsing everything else.”
NPA Coun. George Affleck had a problem with Reimer's motion, saying council should wait until the committee completes a report later this year on the first phase of its work. Affleck described Reimer’s motion as “redundant and politically motivated.”
“The province has heard us loud and clear about what our desires are as a city,” he said. “Let them get their report done so we can hear back from them. They have all the information from us. We’ve made it clear what we want.”
NPA Coun. Melissa De Genova echoed Affleck’s concerns, saying “we’re not giving this the time it needs.” Green Party Coun. Adriane Carr agreed with Reimer, saying there is an opportunity to now change the terms of reference of the committee of MLAs.
“We need to move now on this,” Carr said. “It’s all about staying with the game until the very end of the game and taking advantage of every play and absolutely not missing any opportunity.”
In the end, council unanimously agreed to support Reimer’s motion. Yes, even Affleck and De Genova voted yes, with Affleck telling me later the NPA has always supported campaign finance reform.
Reimer got the final word, saying “I don’t know how I can make it anymore simple: There’s a special committee happening right now. My motivation is to change their terms of reference so we can get an issue on the agenda that happens to be within their wheelhouse, although not yet properly articulated in it.”
Over to you, Victoria.
Again.
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