Officials from Elections Alberta may be looking into the constituency of Athabasca-Redwater and the County of Athabasca over potentially illegal political donations made between 2007 and 2011, the Edmonton Journal reported last Friday.
In the story, Elections Alberta spokesman Drew Westwater said that the department is following up on questions of unlawful donations raised in the fall of 2011 by the Wildrose Party and media reports which identified, among others, Jeff Johnson’s constituency association and the County of Athabasca.
The reports suggested municipalities had provided support for Progressive Conservative fundraisers using taxpayer dollars, which runs contrary to a provincial law that prohibits municipalities, schools and government bodies from making contributions to political parties.
“As a result of the allegations, we’re just following up with the parties and the constituency associations and the municipalities that have been named to find out if in fact that did occur. If it did occur, then we’re making sure the money goes back and any appropriate penalties and fines are levied,” Westwater said in the story, although he did not name the specific CAs and municipalities since the investigation is ongoing.
He added that the investigation is informal at this stage, having asked the parties potentially involved to provide financial records of the period.
He said that if those organizations have been given illegal donations, they will be forced to return them and, if it was intentional, fines could be levied.
Potential for municipal infractions is a new twist to the Election Finances Act, the legislation that covers political contributions.
“We as an organization don’t get financial reports from municipalities, and we have no authority to order them,” he said, adding that it’s more difficult since elected officials can attend such events on their own time and receive tax receipts, with trouble coming if they ask their municipality to reimburse them for those costs.
The issue is not as clear-cut, since there is a monetary threshold for what is considered to be a donation. Under the legislation, an event charging less than $50 is not considered a political contribution. If the event charges more than $50, only $25 can be considered a councillor expense.
Moving forward, Westwater said that in December Elections Alberta sent inquiries to all municipalities and CAs implicated asking them to provide financial records from the period in question.
“Now we’re going through the responses just making sure we have all the info we need to make a determination on each individual case,” he said, adding that they hope to have the process finished before the next election, which is set to be sometime between March and May.
County Manager Gary Buchanan recalled that he was in contact with an official from Elections Alberta in November of last year. He said the official had inquired about a Chamber of Commerce dinner with eight Cabinet ministers, which fell in line with the legislation.
He added that most of the talks with elections officials have had a generic tone and the county has not been asked to provide further details.
“If asked we will cooperate, but there’s been no follow up since initial contact,” he said.
Athabasca-Redwater MLA Jeff Johnson said he was unaware of any donations made to his constituency by prohibited organizations.
“I do know our executive tries to watch for that very closely and have returned monies in the past that have been forwarded in error when an organization does not realize it is a prohibited organization,” he said, adding that the responsibility lies with those organizations.
“Bottom line is we know this is very important and we have good people watching it very closely,” he said.
