NDP concerned about local election finance
By Matthew Burrows
The NDP MLA tasked with shadowing the Local Government Elections Task Force is looking forward to his last chance to go “toe-to-toe” with the B.C. Liberals on the issue during a debate in the legislature today (May 20).
“That will be our last chance before the recommendations are drafted, if indeed they haven’t been already,” Scott Fraser, the New Democrat community and rural development critic, told the Straight by phone.
The six-member task force, struck in October 2009, must report to the B.C. government by May 30. Fraser is still upset that the NDP and South Delta independent MLA Vicki Huntington were excluded, and wonders whether cochair Bill Bennett, the community and rural development minister, will tackle the influence of big money in municipal elections.
Bennett did not return a call requesting an interview.
Campaign finance, including contribution and spending disclosure and limits, is the first of six topics under review. Others include enforcement, the role of B.C.’s chief electoral officer, term limits, and whether corporations should be allowed to vote in municipal elections.
“The task force received a large number of submissions, raising a number of concerns around contribution limits for all the right reasons,” Fraser said. “Arguably the rationale for creating the task force was in part because of perceived problems with individual contributions. The issue was not so much with the spending. If you can raise money and if you need to raise money to raise a large campaign, you could argue that is democratic. But getting the giant contributions from individuals or some entity, that could be argued as tarring the political process by potentially influencing policy post-election.”
Kennedy Stewart, an associate professor in SFU’s graduate public policy program, told the Straight he has some concerns about how Bennett will stickhandle provincial legislation that can be “dropped down to cover municipal elections”.
“The big problem is that, although the minister probably recognizes that contribution limits should be put in place, we don’t have contribution limits at the provincial level,” Stewart said by phone from London, England, where he is on sabbatical. “So it will be pretty difficult for him to say, ‘We’re going to put these in at the municipal level, but we don’t have them at the provincial level.’ That’s his challenge.”
Fraser noted that NDP leader Carole James introduced a private member’s bill on April 20 that would have led to stricter provincial conflict-of-interest rules.
“And they have refused to even bring that bill up for debate, let alone consider such reforms,” Fraser said of the B.C. Liberals. “They would have a hard time bringing in recommendations that include contribution limits, considering they are refusing to do so for their own reasons provincially.”
http://www.straight.com/article-324778/vancouver/ndp-concerned-about-local-election-finance
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