Developer money debated before first Halifax council meeting

As Halifax's new councillors settlein, some arealready thinking about reforming campaign finance rules.

Mayor-elect Mike Savageis urging calm around the contentious topic, while somenew councillorsare calling for a complete overhaul.

"In my view, that's a torqued up issue," Savage told CBC News after polls closed, claimingabout 70per cent of the vote.

Topic of debate this election

This election, at least 20candidates publicly refused to take campaigndonations from developers, including four who were elected. Others set self-imposed financing rules, such as capping the amount of each donation.

"I've heard it talked about more than I have in any other election," councillor-electShawn Cleary said Sunday.

"We are decades behind other levels of government in dealing with this issue."

Cleary defeated Linda Mosher, who topped the list ofcouncillorswho took campaigndonations from developers in 2012.

'What matters is transparency'

Few rules governcampaign financing in Nova Scotia. Under the previous council led by Savage,Halifax asked permission from the province to revamp the guidelines.

Developers gave Mike Savage30 per cent of his campaign fundslast election, but hesaid "what matters is transparency. We have that now."

"People know who gave candidates money, and then they can look at how they can vote on issues and decide if they were influenced by that," Savage said.

Don't need 'actual corruption'

Candidates mustsubmit their donations within 60 days of the election's end, according to the provincial elections act. The municipality will release those sometime after that, spokesman Brendan Elliott said.

Councillor-electSam Austin, like Cleary, wants to ban corporate and union donations outright.

"Idon't even think you have to have actual corruption for it to be a problem," Austin said.

"The people who ... were asking because they perceive it as a problem ... If you don't have public confidence, it's hard for anyone to support the decisions made by council."

Money a 'stumbling block'

As an urban planning graduate student, Austin studied the impact of corporate and union donations on political engagement in municipalities. His study foundbanning such donations made races more fair and more diversebecause some candidates wouldn't have unique "access to this big pot of cash."

"Having money isn't a guarantee of success, but not having money is almost a certain guarantee of failure," Austin said.

"Money is part of that problem because if you come from a group that's historically disadvantaged, one of the stumbling blocks to being able to mount a campaign is having that access to cash."

Halifax's first regional council meeting is scheduled for Nov. 1.