Ontario Liberals would have edge under proposed election financing reforms, warns auditor general

Liberal government would enjoy a “political advantage” under its campaign finance reforms, auditor general warns

TheStar.com
Aug. 11, 2016
By Rob Ferguson

Ontario’s Liberal government would enjoy a “political advantage” over rivals under Premier Kathleen Wynne’s proposed campaign financing reforms, warns auditor general Bonnie Lysyk.

While there are spending limits on advertising for opposition parties and lobby groups in terms of advertising six months before and during elections, there are no such restrictions on the government, Lysyk said Thursday.

“There is a loophole,” she told MPPs on a Liberal-dominated legislative committee studying the reforms as they returned to Queen’s Park after hearings across the province this summer.

“There is an advantage to the governing party if it is able to advertise on any issue, at any time prior to an election, and at any cost in the guise of government advertising.”

Opposition parties said the gap is one of many fairness issues that will have to be fixed for the proposed legislation — which would ban corporate and union donations and lower contribution limits — to live up to its intent of modernizing political fundraising rules in the province.

Wynne promised to pass reforms this fall in the wake of an investigation by the Star’s Martin Regg Cohn revealing that cabinet ministers have secret fundraising targets of up to $500,000 a year.

“We’ll see if we get those loopholes cemented shut,” said Progressive Conservative MPP Randy Hillier, who raised concerns about “back doors” in the bill that would allow some corporate and union donations to squeak through.

The bill also does not ban cash-for-access fundraising, in which the premier and cabinet ministers have hobnobbed with donors, creating the appearance of a conflict of interest, Ontario Integrity Commissioner J. David Wake testified.

“Unless the government accepts substantive amendments, which we will be putting forward, we’ll still have a flawed piece of legislation,” said New Democrat MPP Catherine Fife (Kitchener-Waterloo).

The deadline for amendments to be submitted is Aug. 22, but Hillier said Conservative staffers are having difficulty getting meetings with government staff to discuss wording.

“The Liberals appear to be getting cold feet,” he charged.

A government spokesman denied that accusation, saying government House leader Yasir Naqvi had an hour-long phone call with Hillier (Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington) on Wednesday night and is awaiting opposition amendments.

“Our government remains open to hearing from all parties on their ideas to make changes to the bill,” Kyle Richardson said, adding the government will make amendments of its own reflecting feedback heard on the bill at earlier hearings in Ottawa, Kingston, Windsor, Kitchener-Waterloo and London.

As the bill stands, third party groups would be limited to $100,000 in advertising during elections and $600,000 in the six preceding months with a $1 million limit during that period for political parties.

In contrast, the government spent $40 million in the last fiscal year on ads, said Lysyk, who reiterated complaints that the government removed teeth from the Government Advertising Act, forcing her to approve ads she considers partisan — including recent commercials on the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan and Wynne’s climate change plan.

On third-party spending before and during elections, Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario president Sam Hammond told MPPs that limits are an “unreasonable infringement” of freedom of expression on issues of public policy.

But Elections Ontario chief executive Greg Essensa later called that argument “astounding,” saying limits are needed to moderate “the self-interest of any vocal minority with significant resources, be it a union or professional interest group.”

“In Ontario, we have third-party advertisers that rival the spending of major political parties,” he said in a nod to the $8.6 million such groups spent in the last provincial election two years ago.

Essensa called for tighter spending and overall political contribution limits and urged the government to hold more public hearings after amendments are debated and voted on by the committee in the last week of August.

The next provincial election is in 2018.