Publishing Date
On March 3, Municipal Affairs Minister Josie Osborne introduced Bill 9 to address campaign finance issues identified during the 2018 local elections. UBCM President Brian Frenkel expressed support for the Bill noting the proposed amendments directly respond to concerns raised by UBCM in resolution 2020-SR3, Local Government Election Financing, endorsed at the 2020 Convention.
Amendments would take effect for the October 2022 local elections and address the following:
- require all elector organizations to register with Elections BC;
- require elector organizations to file annual financial disclosure reports;
- ban elector organizations from accepting non-campaign contributions to cover operational expenses thereby prohibiting businesses and corporations from making donations in non-election years to cover those operational expenses;
- establish a pre-campaign period to lengthen the time election advertising will be regulated; and
- establish contribution limits for third party advertisers similar to what is in place for other campaign contributors.
Further details on amendments can be found in provincial news release.