Local school board election unaffected by new donation rules

By Jeremy Appel on November 9, 2018.

jappel@medicinehatnews.com @MHNJeremyAppel

Chairs of the three local school boards agree new legislation unveiled by the provincial government Monday to ban corporate and union donations in municipal elections will have little impact in smaller centres, such as Medicine Hat.

Bill 23 bans corporate and union donations to municipal and school board races, in addition to decreasing the limit on individual donations to $4,000 from $5,000.

Stuart Angle, chair of the Prairie Rose School Division, says school board campaign finance is virtually a non-issue in rural areas.

“This is largely an urban concern, addressing special interests that seem to be popping up all over the place,” said Angle.

The main struggle for PRSD is finding trustee candidates, rather than fundraising for campaigns, he added.

“The last couple of elections, we’ve had to run by-elections to fill positions and some we weren’t able to fill,” said Angle.

He said the major expense for PRSD candidates is purchasing lawn signs, which costs about $200.

The same is true for small urban municipalities, says Medicine Hat Public School Division chair Rick Massini.

“We don’t spend a lot of money on campaigning,” Massini said. “It’s probably based more on name recognition.”

Dick Mastel, chair of the Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education, says in his nine years as a trustee, he hasn’t seen donations from special interests “play any role at all.”

“School board elections are pretty small affairs and candidates, I think almost without question, finance their own campaign, as little as it is,” he said, adding that he doesn’t know of any local candidates who spend more than $500 on their campaign.

Although unaffected by the changes, Massini says he supports them as a means of limiting the interference of special interests in municipal politics, particularly in Alberta’s two big cities — Calgary and Edmonton.

“I just can’t help but think that along with that financial support, there’s got to be come indebtedness,” he said. “It obscures the transparency in elections.”