Rookie Tory MLA, Jeff Johnson, recently introduced Bill 203, the Local Authorities Election (Finance and Contribution Disclosure) Amendment Act in the Alberta Legislature.  This bill, if passed, will take Alberta’s major cities out of the dark ages when it comes to municipal election transparency.

As it currently stands, the provincial government’s local election legislation simply allows municipalities to make their own bylaws to govern how or whether they disclose and account for the donations received by candidates running for local office. 

For the vast majority of Alberta’s municipalities, this is probably very appropriate.  It’s doubtful a candidate running for the position of councillor in the County of Birch Hills (population 1,600) is receiving thousands upon thousands of dollars in donations.  In all likelihood, those candidates are self-funding their relatively small election campaigns.  However, in Alberta’s major cities, elections have become big business.

In fact, most serious campaigns for mayor, alderman or councillor in Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer, Lethbridge, Strathcona County (Sherwood Park), Grande Prairie, Wood Buffalo, St. Albert, or Medicine Hat, are sizable operations.  As such, nearly all of the serious candidates will be seeking donations to fund their campaigns.

Unfortunately, not all of the aforementioned municipalities have passed campaign disclosure bylaws to ensure voters know who is contributing to these election campaigns, and who will have the ear of the candidate after the election.  More often than not, those few cities that have passed bylaws tend to lack real transparency and appropriate measures to deal with surplus funds (read: Calgary).

Currently in Calgary, candidates have to disclose the names of all contributors who donate more than $100.  In Edmonton, Strathcona County and Lethbridge, that figure is $300.  Bill 203 sets that bar at $100 for all municipalities in the province.

If a candidate runs a surplus in their campaign account, in Edmonton that surplus must be held in trust for the next election campaign or donated to a registered charity.  In Calgary, those funds can be retained by the candidate as personal funds.

And we’re not talking about peanuts here.  Calgary’s Mayor, Dave Bronconnier, ran a $360,000 surplus in his 2004 election campaign.  Calgary Aldermen Dale Hodges, Ray Jones, Dianne Colley-Urquart, Joe Ceci, Bob Hawkesworth, Linda Fox-Mellway and Gord Lowe all ran surpluses of greater than $25,000 in the 2004 election.  Many of them matched that amount in the 2007 election.

In Edmonton, where the candidates cannot keep the surpluses as personal funds, the surpluses are much smaller.  Only two city councillors, Bryan Anderson and Michael Phair ran surpluses of over $25,000 in the 2004 election.  Incumbent Mayor Stephen Mandel ran an $84,524 surplus in his 2007 campaign.

Many of these campaigns receive and spend more than provincial MLA or federal MP election campaigns.  In 2001, Calgary Mayor Bronconnier spent $834,811 on his campaign. And in 2007, unsuccessful challenger to Bronconnier, Alnoor Kassam spent over $1.5-million!

Bill 203 simply puts in place some basic rules that must be followed across the province.  Rules such as: maximum donation ($5,000), minimum disclosure limits (donations over $100), how to deal with surpluses (municipality holds it until next election or donates it to charity), and when audits must occur (campaigns spending over $10,000).

Is Bill 203 perfect?  No.  There is still much work to do if we are going to ensure voters have full information about the candidates seeking public office, including those parties who seek to influence the decisions of the elected officials who spend our money.  But it is a start, and a very good one at that.

Jeff Johnson’s Bill 203 is a private members’ bill, which unlike government bills, are not guaranteed to pass.  In fact, the majority of them do not pass.  

But it will be a crying shame is Bill 203 does not pass and it will be yet another delay for much needed transparency of our civic elections.