Evidence of meeting #106 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was elections.
A video is available from Parliament.
Acting Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
Every fact situation is unique, but it would be preferable to have a clear anti-avoidance rule. There is one in the bill for spending, but there isn't one on the contribution side and on the funding side.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
We should get all foreign influence out of Canadian elections. I join my Conservative colleagues and friends in looking to making the playing field actually level. By the way, CAPP is going to run into all sorts of issues if we actually do this.
Let's look at the convention loophole. I don't understand it. Under this bill, a very wealthy person could come in and pay for a leadership convention outright.
Acting Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
If the price of the ticket is such as to cover basically just the cost of running the convention, and my understanding is that this is often the case, that there's not much money made out of party conventions—
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Conventions are usually money losers for parties, at least for us.
Acting Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
—in that case, as long as the overhead exceeds or is not greater than the cost of the tickets, an individual, a wealthy person, could buy all the tickets.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
That person could buy every ticket to a convention and pay for it outright.
Acting Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
Correct. That's my concern, that a party convention is a party activity, and funding for party activities—
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
That's not the case right now, though. That would be new.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Okay. I'm trying to understand where this came from. Does that not seem like a massive loop around the restrictions on what an individual can donate to parties?
We all face limits. Rich people can't come in and just drop $1 million on a party. We have laws against that. However, if the convention costs $1 million and they pay for it by buying 3,000 tickets at whatever price....
Acting Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
I think where it comes from is if you compare that with the ticketed fundraisers.
Acting Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
In our interpretation of the act over the years, we've accepted that part of the tangible benefits that people receive is the venue. When you go to a restaurant, it's not just the plate; it's also the venue.
We have not accepted that for conventions because a convention is a party activity. It's doing the party's policy. That is our interpretation.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Yes, because there's no benefit in just hanging out at the Halifax Convention Centre for a weekend.
It's not something people seek to do for part of their vacation, to hang around a convention centre.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
You guys have a strange way to party.
I just don't understand why that would be contemplated. I've never—
Acting Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
To be quite frank, I'm not saying that what was contemplated is the loophole that I've identified.
Acting Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
In the worst-case scenario, it's what the effect could be.
I'm saying that there has to be a way to at least preserve against the worst-case scenario. I'm offering a number of ways of doing that, some of which I think achieve what was intended by the bill. At least by providing a limit to it, we're providing some transparency.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
On privacy, there is no minimum standard for the parties to achieve.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
I asked the minister about the collection of data and whether there is a minimum standard. They said they're going to make the parties put their policy up on their websites, where you have to click seven times to find it, and that's good enough.
There's no enforcement, so if the parties breach some of our privacy laws.... We're not subject to any privacy laws, are we?
