A city councillor whose party received millions of dollars of campaign contributions since its creation almost 10 years ago wants to get the big money out of civic politics.
But to do that, Vision Vancouver Coun. Andrea Reimer said the provincial government has to allow city council to make its own rules on election campaign finance.
Elections are not as accessible as they need to be for people who want to run and get ideas out, said Reimer, who is one of 27 elected officials in the city who belong to parties that rely heavily on donations from big business and unions to run election campaigns.
Vancouver hasnt had an independent city councillor since Carole Taylor won a seat in 1986. Since then, city politics in Vancouver has been dominated by well-funded political parties.
Reimer will introduce a motion this week at council to call for the Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM) to support Vancouvers request to change election finance rules.
The city needs that support to convince the provincial government to allow for amendments to the citys Charter and draft new rules that could include fundraising and spending limits and a ban on corporate and union donations.
Vision, the NPA and COPE, which spent more than $5 million combined in the 2011 campaign, are all previously on record supporting a tri-party agreement to call for electoral finance reforms.
That agreement will likely mean Reimers motion will be unanimously accepted and see it go before the UBCM at its annual meeting in September.
Were not asking [other municipalities] to make any changes to their election rules, were just saying, here in Vancouver, we obviously have a very significant and serious problem thats not getting better and we need rules to be able to deal with it, she said.
If Vancouver gets support from other municipalities, that would give the provincial government at least one year to mull over the resolution before the fall 2014 election.
Coralee Oakes is the recently appointed provincial minister responsible for implementing electoral reform. Oakes, who is the minister of community, sport and cultural development, was unavailable for comment Monday.
But Oakes ministry said in a statement the provincial government is committed to implementing local government election changes in time for the November 2014 local government elections.
The statement didnt specify what types of changes, although it pointed to recommendations made in the 2010 Local Government Elections Task Force.
The recommendations, however, were panned by city council when they were released because none put limits on contributions or a ban union and corporate donations.
In the 2011 election, Vision spent $2.2 million, the NPA shelled out $2.5 million and COPE, which ran a coordinated campaign with Vision, spent $360,969, according to documents filed at city hall.
The totals dont include money directed at individual campaigns or money raised by organizations such as the Vancouver Elementary Teachers Association, which spent $100,869 to support COPE and Vision.
Historically, the majority of money given to Vision and the NPA has come from big business, including developers who regularly go before city council with development proposals. Although unions are COPEs biggest contributors, they also contribute big dollars to Vision.
Since the 2011 election, all three mainstream parties have held fundraisers to collect more money to fund their 2014 campaigns. Vision is having another one Thursday.
Under current rules, the parties dont have to disclose how much theyve raised or where the money came from until four months after the next election.
Former provincial ministers Bill Bennett and Ida Chong told the Courier in previous interviews the Liberals planned to bring in sweeping reforms for civic elections. But neither did.
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