Progressive Conservative constituency associations throughout the province are on edge after a statement last week revealed 10 are under investigation for accepting prohibited donations.
PC Party president Bill Smith released a statement on Thursday, Jan. 5 saying that 10 of 83 constituency associations are being investigated by Elections Alberta’s chief electoral officer. He said the associations will offer complete cooperation throughout the investigation.
“Premier (Alison) Redford and I are in complete agreement that we will fully co-operate as always with this process and ensure that if mistakes were made that we stand up and admit so,” he said in the statement.
Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock PC Association president John Tiemstra could not be reached for comment.
The Wildrose Party issued a release shortly after Smith’s announcement calling on Redford to release the names of the associations under review.
“The premier promised transparency, she should demonstrate it now,” said Wildrose deputy leader Paul Hinman. “These guys have conducted themselves as though they were above the law for years. Albertans deserve to know which PC constituencies and potentially which MLAs are involved in these illegal activities.”
This investigation comes after several news reports surfaced in the fall regarding associations accepting prohibited donations, as set out by the Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act.
The act states that “no prohibited corporation, person ordinarily resident outside Alberta or trade union or employee organization … shall make any contributions to a registered party, registered constituency association or registered candidate.”
This means bodies like school boards and municipalities cannot use their public-derived funds to contribute to partisan politics. The Westlock News has been following this issue since mid-October, when a story was published revealing Westlock County had used public funds to support MLA Ken Kowalski’s annual golf tournament, to the tune of roughly $300 each year.
The county stopped sponsoring the event in 2010 after receiving information from the province stating it was not recommended, CAO Edward LeBlanc said at the time.
This story also revealed that Kowalski received $720 in public funding from the County of Barrhead in 2009 for a 30-year commemoration dinner held in Westlock. At the time, Kowalski said the onus is on the organization donating money rather than the PC association.
“If you’re going to be buying something or contributing something, certainly, there’s an onus on the person to know what they should be doing,” he said, adding it would be “absolutely wrong” for municipalities to donate.
