Spending by municipal election candidates to be capped at $10K

The P.E.I. government is working on new spending and donation limits for the municipal elections in November.

Samantha Murphy, manager of municipal affairs for the province, says after consultation and research, they've picked a limit of $10,000 for a candidate's campaign.

But Murphy said that could change after some testing.

"Because it's new at the municipal level and this is not a party-based structure, we may have to test this for several election terms just to see what's reasonable," she said.

She noted some elections in smaller municipalities involve no spending beyond a sign or two, whereas elections in larger municipalities, there is more of a traditional campaign.

"We'll have to test it a bit, see what the feedback is after elections to see if it is truly reasonable but we did a little bit of ballparking on what municipal candidates might need to spend," Murphy said.

The proposed regulations include the names of donors having to be listed in a public report if they make a donation of $250 or more. A maximum donation of around $1,500 is also being weighed.

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