FREDERICTON - New Brunswick's chief electoral officer is ordering the province's five political parties to detail their pre-election advertising spending by next Tuesday.
Michael Quinn says he wants to make it a practice for all the parties to file their advertising costs ahead of every fixed election date.
Normally, the parties wouldn't have to file the figures until April 1 of next year.
Each party can spend up to $35,000 every calendar year, and the Liberals have asked Quinn to examine the spending of the Conservatives, even though Tory officials have said they didn't exceed the limit.
Quinn says he doesn't think anyone has gone over their limit, but believes it would be good to make the figures public ahead of the election, which is set for Sept. 27.
Any party that did exceed their spending limit could face a fine of between $140 and $570, but Quinn says there has never been such a violation in the province.
