NEWS FILE PHOTO
City clerk Angela Cruichshank readies her stamp to officially receive Bill Cock's registration form in this file photo taken in the runup to the 2017 municipal election. The registry, new for that election, allowed hopefulls to legally raise and spend campaign funds. News Photo Collin Gallant August 1, 2017
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
The already updated versions of local election rules that were first used two years ago, are again up for potential changes.
Last month Municipal Affairs Minister Kayce Madu announced that his ministry would bring potential changes to the local elections regulations this spring.
That comes before an election cycle in Medicine Hat begins to ramp up in early 2021,when likely the third set of election rules in four years will be employed.
“It has been evolving, and judging from the survey more changes are planned,” said Medicine Hat city clerk Angela Cruickshank, who also acts at chief returning officer. ”
“Our hope is that there is a enough time to implement them.”
Cruickshank said that a number of changes are behind the scenes, giving local returning officers and the elections commission more power. Changes to identification requirements and advanced voting were most noticeable from a voter’s perspective in a raft of changes brought in by the province ahead of the 2017 municipal election.
For candidates, there were new requirements to register campaigns before fundraising or campaigning took place, and the need to set up a dedicated campaign bank account. Individual donors were also restricted to giving $1,000, while corporation and union donations were barred.
Updates in late 2018 included extended reporting requirements to school board candidates and third-party advertisers.
A current survey from the government – which is open until March 4 – asks respondents’ opinions on potential spending limits, donation limits, campaigning period and other issues, including the potential of bringing in a recall mechanism for local government officials.
All cities, towns, counties and school boards in Alberta will see new elections take place in October 2021 for four-year terms.
The 2017 campaign also featured the new rule that candidates had to register with the local returning officer, who would periodically publish a list through the four-year lead-up to voting.
The 2018 changes reduced the legal “campaign period” to the calendar year, meaning Jan. 1 was the first day of fundraising or spending, rather than the full four years previously.
It also moved back nomination day to six weeks prior to election day, denoting the official campaign period.
Limits on “self-funded” campaigns were set at $5,000 for council positions and $10,000 for mayor or reeve.
In Medicine Hat, successful council candidates spent on average $4,329 on their campaigns in 2017, down from $6,500 in 2013.
Mayor Ted Clugston raised about $14,000 and, combined with his own contribution, spent $16,200 on his re-election campaign in 2017. That’s about $5,000 less than his successful campaign in 2013, when three of four candidates spent in the $20,000 range.
In 2017, three challengers for the mayoral chair declared they were entirely self-funded and therefore were capped at $10,000 in spending, but didn’t need to submit paperwork.
“That created sort of a loop-hole,” said Cruickshank of the filings, stating rules were meant to keep better track of surpluses that can carry forward to future campaigns or be donated to charity.
“There was a requirement to have a report about outstanding funds, but you couldn’t know what they were (without an initial filing),” she said.
The recent election diverged in that names of donors and amounts were not made widely available, as had happened previously.
All candidates in 2017 were required to keep a schedule of donors, but without a standardized form however, many candidates also included phone numbers and addresses of donors.
Officials at the Medicine Hat city clerk’s office decided against posting them publicly in the interest of privacy protection. The News was provided access to the completed forms and reported a summary of pertinent information.
