The 2018 municipal elections will be fought under new spending rules but where the money comes from won’t change.
That’s because there is too little time for the NDP provincial government to ban union and corporate donations even if there were unanimous demand for those sorts of tweaks.
And that’s too bad.
This is a time when transparency is needed to ensure that the public not only respects the process but participates.
The pathetically low voter turnout in Port Moody's byelection on Saturday — 12% — is a reminder that there is a subset of people who take their local politics seriously while most others simply don't care or are jaded by the process.
It's time to end the wild west of municipal politics. Nobody is saying there is a direct conflict of interest between those who accept union and corporate donations and their funders, we are just saying it looks bad to many voters. And these days, looking bad is a problem, when so many people are leaving their votes on the table.
There is also the future and future voters to think about. It won't be the first time that lax regulation has led to people and systems being taken advantage of — the real estate industry and its increasingly speculative nature come to mind.
Who is to say that that a nod and wink approach to donations won't lead to a conflict of interest in the future as development pressures, in particular, increase, or union demands for job security grow. In addition to controlling where the money comes from, there should also be contribution limits.
Currently, a candidate could get free rent from a corporation while another could get free time paid for by a union, with only disclosure after the fact required. It all adds up to a murky political environment.
Finally, it should be noted that new spending limits didn't go far enough and won't end big money in the Tri-Cities. In Coquitlam, the new rules don't do much to change the dollar figure allowed in that city; ditto for Port Coquitlam. Only in Port Moody, where election spending went through the roof in 2014, will expenditures be curtailed based on the new population-based formula for spending.
What we need is more transparency at the municipal level, not less, and putting more limits on political fundraising and spending would be a good first step.
