Full disclosure is a very important step to deal with all aspects of political financing. All donations over $200 will have to be disclosed. For ridings, nomination candidates, elections and leadership races, this is an initiative that women's caucus has felt was very important to improve the barriers to women as identified in the Lortie Commission: money and nomination fights. Having NO unreceipted donations to political campaigns will deal with transparency, as well as reduce the inequities. Women candidates have traditionally had greater trouble raising unreceipted dollars.

The bill proposes a limit on the amount of money that can be spent in a nomination fight. The bill suggests 50% of that allowed in an election campaign. For most ridings, the election cap is about $60,000 ($1 per elector). That would mean allowing around $30,000 for a nomination fight. We think this is still too high. We had suggested between 10% and 15%.

The limit on individual donations is up to $10,000 and corporations $1,000 (only to ridings). Even though there are strict anti-avoidance penalties, this does not prevent executive and board members from giving as individuals, it just prevents them being reimbursed from their unions or companies. This could lead to lesser transparency as the Elections Canada donor list would only list the individual names and NOT the companies they work for. I have heard concerns raised by some forensic accountants that this may create more problems than it solves. What previously was a transparent political donation now gets buried under 'business expenses' - very difficult for Revenue Canada or Elections Canada to trace.

We would like to see real time transparency (ie. on-line within 48 hours of the receipt being issued). It would mean that citizens can make up their own minds on what has been perceived as influence.

We also worry that the 3rd party contributions are not capped other than during elections by another bill now being fought at the Supreme Court. We worry that this may mean that organizations and individuals can unduly advertise and have influence on behalf of a political party without the scrutiny of Elections Canada (ie. the National Citizens Coalition or last week's full page ad in the Globe and Mail by Tom Caldwell).

There would be greater public funding of elections (approx. $1.50 per vote obtained in the election).

The process and timing of these reforms is very important. If indeed this is a problem of perception of influence, we must hear from the citizens and what they see as the problem and be prepared to tailor the solutions.

To view the bill, please click here.

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