Taxpayers could face $500M tab

An epic-length election campaign - 78 days, among longest in Canadian history - will costs Canadians millions more through Elections Canada spending and rebates to parties."

Thestar.com
Aug. 2, 2015
By Wendy Gillis

Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised he will work to keep money in the pockets of “hard working Canadians” during his address Sunday, moments after dissolving Parliament and officially sending Canadians to the polls October 19.

“It’s important that these campaigns be funded by the parties themselves rather than taxpayers,” Harper told reporters Sunday.

But the length of the election campaign - 78 days, among longest in Canadian history - will actually cost Canadians more money for a few reasons.

First, Elections Canada will have to ramp up its operation. The federal agency estimates that a typical 37-day campaign costs roughly $375 million.

It’s not clear how much that bill will now increase, thanks to added salaries for employees preparing for the election, rent for electoral offices across the country, and more. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation has estimated the tally could approach $500 million.

“We’re talking tens of millions extra for the chief electoral officer,” said Jean-Pierre Kingsley, former chief electoral officer of Elections Canada. “He’s got to run a machine here. If you were thinking you were going to be hiring people for 40 days, and you have to hire them for 80 days ... all of those salaries are being doubled.”

“These are direct costs that would not be borne had the election not been called so far ahead of the game,” Kingsley said.

The 11-week election campaign also translates into a higher limit in terms of allowable campaign expenses under Elections Canada rules.

Until recently, every political campaign had a $25-million spending limit, regardless of a campaign’s length.

Now, because of changes contained in the Conservatives’ Fair Elections Act, passed last year, that hard-line limit no longer exists. Parties’ spending limits can now be increased if the campaign is longer than the 37-day minimum; for each extra day, the limit is increased by 1/37th, or $675,000.

Tallied up, an 11-week campaign now allows parties to spend more than $50 million.

That starts to make a real difference for taxpayers, thanks to the campaign rebate that sees taxpayers subsidize up to 50 per cent of what the political parties will spend on a national campaign. That amount increases to 60 per cent for individual candidates.

Following the election in 2011, Elections Canada estimated the total tab paid by taxpayers on campaign rebates was more than $60 million.

“Whenever the parties are doing anything, taxpayers are paying, because of that deduction,” said Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch and a visiting professor at the University of Ottawa’s School of Political Studies.

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, speaking from British Columbia, criticized Harper for his claims Sunday.

“What isn’t right is to claim that the taxpayers aren’t subsidizing this election. It’s going to cost Canadians tens of millions of dollars more.”

Premier Kathleen Wynne, too, weighed in this weekend, tweeting that Harper’s early election call is “unusual, unnecessary, and a waste of taxpayers’ money.”