Kathleen Wynne says 'significant reforms' coming to political fundraising rules

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynnesaysthe province will make changes this fallto political fundraising rules.

"We are working on significant reforms right now," Wynne told reporters in Markham, Ont. on Tuesday.

"We have been for the last few months. The government will bring forward a plan in the fall."

• ANALYSIS | Why Ontario's political fundraising rules won't likely change soon

Wynne said the changes will include new rules on third party advertising, moving away from corporate and union donations and lowering the annual donation limit.

The provincial government will be "keeping transparency measures in place on real-time reporting," she said.

Wynne said fundraising rules "are evolving and changing," as public expectations change.

She said it's important that fundraising rules are followed and the public has access to information about who is donating how much to which political parties.

"I know this is of keen interest to everyone," Wynne said.

"Politicians and parties require funding. There's a need for funding. In order for the process to work, there has to be funding in place. Running campaigns, interacting in terms of advertising, signs, all of it costs money. Most people can't fund that process themselves. The funding needs to come from somewhere."

"It takes money to run a democratic system," she said.

Economic Development Minister Brad Duguid, also in Markham with Wynne, said politicians need to raise funds to campaign.

"We all have responsibilities as members of a team to raise money for the next campaign and you don't want to go into a campaign without a good war chest in place to be able to launch a good, competitive campaign," Duguid said.

"I do the very best that I can to raise as much as I can for the party. We all follow the rules exactly, it's all transparent. I don't pay a lot of attention to anything about allocations or how much you should or shouldn't raise," he said.