Alberta government unveils new rules for municipal political parties, donations

Alberta is unveiling new regulations that will once again allow corporate and union donations in local elections, and set the ground rules for municipal political parties.

The move by the United Conservative Party government reversesa corporate and union donation ban brought in under the NDP.

Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver said Friday the changes will boost transparency, accountability and trust in local elections.

"[They]are good for municipalities, good for voters, good for Albertans," he said.

McIver has long contended that corporate and union donations are already influencing municipal elections and the new rules enforce needed boundaries.

They come under a bill that makes sweeping changes, including allowing Premier Danielle Smith's cabinet to initiate ousting locally elected officials by ordering a recall vote and to overturn bylaws that go against provincial policy.

The bill passed debate in the legislature earlier this year and largely comes into effect at the end of this month, just over a year before the next municipal elections.

Alberta Municipalities, which represents municipalities in which more than 85 per cent of Albertans live, has criticized the changes.

President Tyler Gandam has said opening the door to big donors puts local governments "up for sale to the highest bidder."

Ground rules set for local political parties

The legislation allows local political parties and slates on city councilballots beginning in 2025 but only in the province's two largest cities, Edmonton and Calgary. School boards are excluded from the change.

Municipal leaders have said they don't want party politics colouring local issues.

Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek called the new rules "the kiss of death to local representation and local democracy."

"Getting a candidate who's doing this for the right reasons is no longer the priority," she said. "Running candidates who have more money that seems to be the priority of this province."

Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi also raised concerns.

WATCH |Municipalities pushing back against ban on electronic vote tabulators:

Municipalities pushing back against ban on electronic vote tabulators

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The Alberta government is banning the use of electronic vote counting machines, saying it will bolster trust in election outcomes. The City of Red Deer estimates it will cost close to $1.5 million to count votes by hand in the upcoming 2025 election. Alberta Municipalities will decide this week if it plans to advocate for the province to allow the use of tabulators.

"We know that political parties in local elections are deeply unpopular, but the province is tilting the playing field against anyone who doesn't want to participate in their system."

Local parties would be limited to spending $1 per person in a municipality's population, based on the number of wards in which they have endorsed candidates, during an election year. Third-party advertisers would be able to spend at half that rate.

Likewise, candidates would be limited to spending $100,000 on a municipal campaign where the population is 100,000 people.

"Because you're able to fundraise for the party as well as the candidate, I think it just gives it an unfair advantage for those who align or have joined a political party versus an independent," said Gandam.

Although McIver touted the consultation the province did with municipalities before crafting the regulations, Edmonton Coun. Andrew Knack says the regulations failed to accommodate their request for fairness.

Knack, who is not running again, says the rules will leave politicians beholden to party agendas and not the citizens they represent.

Local political parties can't share a name, acronym, resources or information with any existing provincial or federal party, according to the rules.

McIver said the local party regulationswere designed to mirror rules governing provincial and federal parties.

"There's a certain element of what's good for the goose is good for the gander," he said.

Individuals, corporations and unions are capped at contributing $5,000 to all local parties per jurisdiction per year.

Some of the organizers preparing to launch local political parties liked the rules at first glance.

Doug Main, spokesperson for the Principled, Accountable Coalition for Edmonton (PACE), says volunteers have been organizing for months and should be ready to go when the city begins registering parties on Oct. 31.

Main, a former Progressive Conservative MLA, said Edmonton's first election with official partisan forces will be a time to learn, as potential candidates decide if parties, slates, or independence are right for them.

"What we're offering candidates is,we maximize resources on data, on data management, on polling, on event co-ordination, on marketing, on publicity, on all the rest of it. So, yeah, there's an advantage in being in a party," he said.

He's hoping party affiliation will give voters clear information about a candidate's positions, and increase voter turnout.

Jon Horsman, spokesperson for the group A Better Calgary, which plans to register as a local party, said he hopes the introduction of parties helps slim down municipal ballots to a shorter list of more credible choices.

"It doesn't stop somebody from running independently," said Horsman, who initially ran in the 2022 United Conservative Party leadership race before withdrawing.

Slates would be able to share a brand on the ballot if they register, but they can't pool resources to spend on their campaigns, and cannot accept donations.

Another contentious change is a provincial ban on electronic tabulators.

On Friday, McIver dismissed concerns municipalities have aired about having to shoulder the added costs.

He said it's worth it to increase confidence in election results, pointing to a Mayonline survey of about 1,000 Albertansthat suggests 36 per cent of Albertans support banning tabulators.

"Municipalities are responsible to pay for the cost of municipal elections. That's always been the case, and that has not changed," he said.

Sohi reiterated in a statement that tabulators are safer, more secure and more reliable.

Gandam says if the province is setting the rules, it's unfair to download the cost onto municipal taxpayers.

Calgary has estimated it would cost $1.3 million to implement the new rules in the next election, including hand-counting ballots.

Calgary's mayor says the provincial government shouldn't give credenceto misinformation from the U.S. about stolen elections.

"It's probably our job to dispel the myths around tabulators, more so than try to appease people who have a conspiracy theory," said Gondek.