Riley Brandt

Alderman Gord Lowe (white beard) is concerned election candidates could file inaccurate disclosure statements. Calgary has few rules regulating campaign financing

Last October, Fast Forward reported that candidate disclosure statements from the 2004 municipal election were littered with errors and inconsistencies, and the city was powerless to investigate whether or not the statements are accurate. The 2007 filing deadline recently passed in February, and the statements have many of the same inconsistencies — for example, different aldermen list different dates for the campaign period. Nobody checks the statements for accuracy once they’re submitted, and that has some council members calling for campaign finance reform.

“I… observed a report which I do not believe to be indicative of the amount of money spent on the campaign even vaguely,” says Ward 2 Ald. Gord Lowe. He won’t disclose which candidate statement he’s referring to, but Lowe says he’s worried that candidates could file inaccurate statements with no consequence. “There’s no challenge,” says Lowe. “The City Clerk’s department doesn’t challenge anything that comes in.”

Three and a half months after the civic election, all candidates who ran are required to file a disclosure statement that lists their campaign contributions over $101, as well as their campaign expenditures. The statements reveal some big spending: mayoral candidate Alnoor Kassam spent over $1.5 million of his own money on his campaign. (Mayor Dave Bronconnier spent less than half that.) In Ward 8, successful challenger John Mar spent almost $186,000 to knock out Madeleine King, who spent over $144,400.

Other candidates spent significantly less, according to their statements. Al Koenig, who ran a high-profile campaign in Ward 9 against incumbent Joe Ceci, spent just over $28,000. Ward 7 incumbent Ald. Druh Farrell spent less than $20,000 — largely because she was acclaimed in the 2004 election, she says. “I had all my signs printed [in the 2004] election,” says Farrell. “And so I was able to use signs that had been stored in my garage for three years.”

One acclaimed candidate, Ward 14 Ald. Linda Fox-Mellway, spent more than twice that amount to run against no one. “I was ready to run a full campaign,” she says. “I probably recycled 100,000 brochures….. I’d signed contracts, so I had to pay for them whether or not I went to the extent of using… portable signs and billboards and all that kind of stuff.”

Once the statements are submitted, Barbara Clifford, the city’s returning officer, makes sure they contain the correct forms and are audited. She doesn’t check the statements for accuracy, and is powerless to do so. “I am not an accountant,” she says. “I do not go through these forms to turn around and say, ‘Well, this accountant did not do this right’…. [Candidates] have signed what is the equivalent of an oath. And they said ‘this is true.’” Clifford says if a candidate files a false claim, it’s a criminal offence — but she says she has “no bylaw enforcement authority whatsoever.”

City council is currently drawing up terms of reference for an independent committee that will make recommendations on how campaign financing should be regulated in Calgary. Currently, the city has no rules for the size of contributions or the amount a candidate can spend on a campaign. Farrell says “we need to start talking about limits,” but adds: “I don’t know if that has a lot of support of council.” Some aldermen, like Fox-Mellway, believe limits aren’t necessary. “Ultimately, we are accountable,” she says. “The public has access to those files, and we’re responsible to the public.” (All the candidate statements are posted on the city’s website.) As well, current provincial law doesn’t allow municipalities to make their own contribution or spending limits. That law would have to change for the city to bring in limits. Provincial law does, however, allow cities to regulate what happens to a candidate’s surplus campaign contributions if the candidate doesn't run again. In many Canadian cities, the surplus goes into general city revenue. In others, like Edmonton, it has to go to charity. In Calgary, candidates can keep their surplus and spend it however they like. When council voted on whether to regulate surpluses in November 2006, it was voted down eight to seven. Fox-Mellway, Lowe, Ward 5 Ald. Ray Jones, Ward 1 Ald. Dale Hodges and Bronconnier all voted against it. (Fast Forward tried to contact Bronconnier for this story, but he was out of the country.)

Perspectives on council seem to be shifting, however. Bronconnier was recently quoted in the Calgary Herald as saying he thinks retiring council members “should declare upfront what they are going to do with the funds.” (When Fast Forward interviewed Bronconnier about campaign finance in September, he said he had no problem with the existing rules.) Fox-Mellway also says the surplus issue is “something else the committee should be looking at.”

At any point during their term, the mayor and aldermen can take money from donors and claim it as a campaign contribution after the next election. If they don’t run again, they can simply pocket the cash. Aldermen say part of the problem is that campaign contributions aren’t tax-deductible; they’re technically considered private gifts. “The money has no public component to it,” says Lowe. “It’s not public funds.”

The campaign period is “the period of time between consecutive general elections,” according to the bylaw. Yet aldermen list different dates for the campaign period on their statements. Lowe, Fox-Mellway and Ward 13 Ald. Diane Colley-Urquhart said on their statements that the period began January 1, 2005. Ward 11 Ald. Brian Pincott said the period began August 1, 2007. The rest of the current council members said the period began immediately after the last election in October 2004.