'Disturbing' and 'deeply concerning': Edmonton mayor, councillor worried about Bill 20 spending rules

Edmonton council discusses Bill 20 Edmonton council discussed changes coming to local elections because of Bill 20 on Tuesday. Jeremy Thompson reports.

Members of Edmonton city council are raising more concerns over provincial legislation that will allow local political parties to spend "enormous" amounts of money on candidates.

Part of Alberta's controversial Bill 20 allows for political parties in Edmonton and Calgary elections.

The bill also introduces rules on campaign spending for independent candidates and parties.

Details of the bill were revealed last week, it comes into effect in less than two weeks.

"The most concerning aspect of Bill 20 is the introduction of political parties and how money will influence elections," said Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi.

"The introduction of huge amounts of money that can be funnelled into candidate campaigns through political parties, through third parties, is unheard of in Edmonton's context."

The bill will allow mayoral candidates to spend up to $1 per person in the municipality or $20,000, whichever is greater.

Councillor candidates can spend up to $1 per person in the ward they are running. If there are no wards, it is based on the population of the municipality, or $20,000 in either situation, whichever is greater.

For Edmonton, this means mayoral candidates will have spending limits of over $1.1 million based on 2023 population data from the province.

Edmonton ward candidates would be able to spend at least $86,000, based on 2022 population data from a council executive committee meeting.

Candidates running as part of parties will be able to spend more than individuals.

The new rules would allow parties to spend millions if they're running a full roster of candidates, according to Ward papastew Coun. Michael Janz.

"It's an enormous amount of money, and who has that money? It's not me or my neighbours, it's not rank-and-file Edmontonians, it's not workers – it's wealthy corporations, it's special interest groups, it's well-funded and well-heeled groups," Janz said. "It's just disturbing and deeply, deeply concerning."

Bill 20 will also allow corporations and unions to donate to local candidates, which was previously not allowed.

"Now a board of directors will be calling shots or a small group of membership will be calling shots," Sohi said. "It's going backwards on democracy, particularly on local democracy."

Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver told CTV News the change to allow corporate and union donations is to allow for "transparency about financial backing for election candidates."

"The NDP ban on union and corporate donations did not come true and has not impacted the scale of donations to candidates. Instead, it appears that unions and corporations donated through third party advertisers," McIver said in a statement.

"We want to ensure that candidate, parties and third-party advertisers are fully transparent about where their campaign dollars are coming from."

More money often means victory

A 2014 report to the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues board of directors on the 2013 municipal election showed that the candidates who spent the most money won in each of the 12 ward ridings.

"There is a significant discrepancy in the scale of funds raised by successful candidates compared to other candidates," the report said.

"The 12 successful candidates raised basically as much as the other 61 council candidates combined."

In the 2021 municipal election, the candidates for council who spent the most won in seven of the 12 ridings.

In the 2021 mayoral race, Sohi was the highest spender, with around $675,000 in expenses, nearly half of the new spending limit.

"This is taking a very precipitous step towards a form of legalized corruption," said Janz.

"If somebody can give enormous amounts of money through numbered companies, it puts a For Sale sign on city hall and it calls into question who is making decisions."

Local spending limitations

Council was told that it can put additional limits on campaign spending through a bylaw, though Janz is concerned it might not have the desired impact.

"Does that limit the political parties? Does that limit the third-party PACs?" Janz said. "You could have very wealthy donors outside of Cochrane, outside of Calgary, donating to races in Edmonton.

"They don't really care about a local Edmonton issue, what they care about is installing a candidate here who will do their political bidding provincially."

The deadline for imposing a bylaw ahead of the 2025 municipal election is Dec. 31, 2024.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Jeremy Thompson