The committee met at 11:02 a.m.

[J. Brar in the chair.]

J. Brar (Chair): Good morning, everyone. My name is Jagrup Brar. I’m the MLA for Surrey-Fleetwood and the Chair of the Special Committee to Review Provisions of the Election Act.

First of all, I would like to acknowledge that I am joining today’s meeting from the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people, in particular, peoples of Kwantlen, Katzie, Semiahmoo, Tsawwassen, Kwikwetlem and Qay­qayt First Nations.

Our committee’s mandate is to review whether the annual allowance paid to political parties should continue after 2022 and, if so, the amount of the annual allowance and how many years it should be paid. We must report to the Legislative Assembly with our recommendations by September 1.

British Columbians can share their views by presenting to the committee by video teleconference or by providing written, audio or video submissions. The consultation closes on May 28, 2021. More information on how to participate is available on the committee’s website at www.leg.bc.ca\cmt\rpea.

At today’s meeting, we will hear from Elections B.C. about the administration of annual allowance payments to B.C.’s political parties. Before we do that, starting in a few minutes, I would like the committee members to introduce themselves. Let’s start with Ronna-Rae.

R. Leonard: I’m Ronna-Rae Leonard. I’m the MLA for Courtenay-Comox.

A. Olsen: My name is Adam Olsen. I am the MLA for Saanich North and the Islands.

I am working today from the beautiful W̱JOȽEȽP village in the W̱SÁNEĆ territory.

A. Mercier: Hi, I’m Andrew Mercier. I’m the MLA for Langley.

I’m on the traditional territory of the Kwantlen, Katzie, Matsqui and Semiahmoo peoples.

P. Milobar (Deputy Chair): Hello. I’m Peter Milobar. I’m the MLA for Kamloops–North Thompson.

G. Kyllo: Hi. Greg Kyllo, the MLA for Shuswap and the official opposition critic for Labour.

[11:05 a.m.]

B. Anderson: Hi. I’m Brittny Anderson. I’m the MLA for Nelson-Creston and the Premier’s special advisor on youth.

I’m coming from the traditional territory of the Ktunaxa, the Sinixt and the Syilx people.

J. Brar (Chair): Thank you, everyone.

Also assisting the committee today are Susan Sourial, Clerk to the Committee; Ron Wall and Jesse Gordon from the Parliamentary Committees Office; and Billy Young from Hansard Services.

I will now turn it over to the Chief Electoral Officer, Anton Boegman, for further introductions and his presentation to us today.

Anton, go ahead.

Briefings on
Provisions of the Election Act

ELECTIONS B.C.

A. Boegman: Good morning, Mr. Chair, Mr. Deputy Chair and committee members. We’re pleased to be able to meet with you via Zoom this morning and provide a briefing on the administration of annual allowance payments to eligible political parties in British Columbia.

Also on this call, from Elections B.C., are Charles Porter, who is the Deputy Chief Electoral Officer for electoral finance and operations, and Jodi Cooke, the executive director of electoral finance.

I would like to begin our presentation by recognizing that we are joining you today from Elections B.C.’s office, which is located on the traditional territories of the Lək̓ʷəŋin̓əŋ-speaking people, the Esquimalt and Songhees First Nations. I acknowledge with respect their stewardship of the lands that we are on.

As requested in our invitation, our presentation will be concise and administratively focused. It will cover the following elements: a recap of the legislative change that brought in political party allowances, and the implementation of this change by Elections B.C.; the eligibility criteria; calculation of allowance amounts; funding and payment mechanisms; and administrative challenges.

To support our briefing, we have provided a handout document that provides additional financial detail and summarizes the key points that we’ll be covering today.

Our understanding of the mandate of this committee, as you mentioned, Mr. Chair, is that it’s been tasked with reviewing annual allowances paid to political parties under section 215.02 of the Election Act. This review includes the committee making a recommendation on whether annual allowances should continue to be paid after they’re scheduled to expire in 2022, and, if so, what the amount and duration of these payments should be.

Given my position as an independent, non-partisan officer of the Legislature, the scope of my comments today will be limited to how Elections B.C. administers the current provisions of the Election Act. My office does not take a position on whether or not annual allowance payments should continue or, if continued, what their amounts should be. This decision, of course, is a matter of public policy that, appropriately, is up to legislators to determine, informed by the work of your committee.

To help support this process, we’re pleased to provide information on the act’s current provisions and how they’re administered.

On September 18, 2017, the Election Amendment Act, 2017, or Bill 3, was introduced, containing significant changes to the electoral finance provisions of the Election Act. As committee members are aware, one of those changes was introducing annual allowance payments to eligible political parties in the form of a per-vote payment schedule from 2018 to 2022, starting at $2.50 per vote and decreasing by 25 cents per year. It is currently at $1.75 per vote.

Following royal assent on November 30, 2017, Elections B.C. took the necessary steps to ensure that our office could administer these annual allowances in time for the first payment, which was scheduled for January 1, 2018. This included determining which political parties would be eligible to receive the allowance, calculating the annual allowance amounts, presenting these additional funding requirements to the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services and then making arrangements for the eligible parties to receive the allowance payments.

In order to be eligible, a political party must have received at least 2 percent of the total valid votes in all electoral districts in the province or 5 percent of the total valid votes cast in the electoral districts in which the party endorsed candidates.

[11:10 a.m.]

Initial eligibility for the annual allowance was based on the number of votes parties received during the 41st provincial election, held on May 9, 2017. Of the 18 political parties that endorsed candidates in the 2017 general election, three received sufficient votes to be eligible for annual allowances from 2018 to 2020: the B.C. Green Party, the B.C. Liberal Party and the B.C. NDP. All three parties qualified because they received at least 2 percent of the ballot votes in all electoral districts in the province.

Since eligibility is determined based on the most recent general election, political parties must requalify after each general election. Therefore, the current annual allowances are based on the number of votes received during the 42nd provincial general election held on October 24, 2020. Of the ten political parties that endorsed candidates in the 2020 general election, five received sufficient votes to be eligible for annual allowances from 2021 to 2022 — the B.C. Green Party, the B.C. Liberal Party, the B.C. NDP, the B.C. Conservative Party and the Rural B.C. Party.

The B.C. Liberal Party and the B.C. NDP qualified because they received at least 2 percent of the ballot votes in all electoral districts. The B.C. Green Party, the B.C. Conservative Party and the Rural B.C. Party qualified because they received at least 5 percent of the total ballot votes in the districts they ran candidates in.

Now, each annual allowance instalment is determined by multiplying a per-vote amount prescribed by legislation for the calendar year by the number of the votes the political party received in the most recent general election. The number of votes received in by-elections that may be held between general elections is not included in the calculations. This amount is then divided by two so that equal instalments can be paid in January and July. The amount of each allowance payment is published on the Elections B.C. website.

The Election Act requires that annual allowances are paid from the consolidated revenue fund. In order to pay the first three annual allowance instalments, I requested supplemental funding of $6.97 million at meetings with the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services in December 2017 and February 2018.

This amount was confirmed by letter from the Minister of Finance and paid to eligible political parties per the schedule — in January 2018, in July 2018 and in January 2019.

Subsequent annual allowance payments have been included in Elections B.C.’s yearly budget submissions to the Finance Committee as pass-through funding, necessary to administer the mandatory public financing re­quirements of the Election Act.

For example, in our budget submission to that committee for this fiscal year, Elections B.C. requested $3.25 million in order to pay the eighth and ninth annual allowance instalments in July 2021 and in January 2022 respectively. To date, Elections B.C. has paid just over $14.6 million in annual allowances. Under the current legislation and funding formulas, an additional $4.87 million will be paid out through to the end of the current annual allowance provisions in July 2022.

In terms of the actual mechanics of these payments, all annual allowance amounts are entered and approved by Elections B.C. in the corporate accounting system the week before the legislative instalment payment date. Since direct deposits cannot be processed on holidays, the payments are directly deposited in a financial account designated by each eligible political party on the next business day.

Overall, the administration of annual allowance payments is relatively straightforward. The majority of the work occurs following each general election, when we must determine which political parties are eligible, based on the number of votes they have received, and calculate the amount of the annual allowance payments according to the formula and calendar that are established in legislation.

Once calculated, those amounts are included as part of Elections B.C.’s annual budget submissions as pass-through funding requests. From there, it’s a matter of scheduling and approving the payments twice a year in the corporate accounting system.

As mentioned earlier, it’s difficult to make the actual payments on July 1 and January 1 because they’re both public holidays. That said, depositing the funds into the designated financial accounts on the next business day has not caused any issues with recipients.

[11:15 a.m.]

One layer of additional work that has resulted from the allowance payments is the establishment of interim reporting requirements for those political parties that are eligible for the annual allowance payments. In accordance with section 207.01 of the Election Act, a registered political party that is eligible to receive an allowance under section 215.02 is also required to file interim financial reports for each quarter. These reports must disclose all contributions received by the party during the interim reporting period as well as any transfers of money, property or services made or received by the registered political party.

As is the practice with all financial reports filed with my office, these reports are reviewed for compliance with the legislative requirements. Other than these additional reports to receive, publish and review, there is no additional significant work necessary to administer the annual allowances paid to political parties under the current legislative framework.

That concludes my presentation on the administration of the annual allowances. I’d like to thank committee members for this opportunity to provide information on this subject. We’d be pleased at this point to respond to any questions the committee members may have.

J. Brar (Chair): Thank you, Mr. Boegman.

Now I’ll open the floor to questions.

P. Milobar (Deputy Chair): Thank you for the presen­tation there, Anton. I appreciate that whether it happens or not is not in your hands, but in your report, you did mention that….

About the only thing I saw of even a modicum of concern, in terms of the administrative side for you, was the statutory holiday dates, the payments. If the committee was to be of a mind to extend, in some form or another, the program, are there any changes of any kind that you would like to see addressed — of what a system, moving forward, would look like?

A. Boegman: As you mentioned and as I raised in my briefing, it is hard to make the payments on the two days that are specified in the legislation because they are holidays and banks are closed. The approach that we have taken is to make these payments to the designated financial accounts on the day following that, and that has not proved to be an issue with the recipients. It would be cleaner to not have to do that, but it’s not a necessary amendment.

J. Brar (Chair): Any other questions, Members?

R. Leonard: I really appreciate your meticulous presentation, Anton. It’s always a pleasure to hear some things that can be pretty dry. It just kind of really puts flesh on the bones for me and for others to understand how these things work.

Having sat on the Finance Committee and seeing how you operate, you come for approvals not when it’s anticipated but when it’s real, once legislation is passed, etc. Now that we’ve run through two election cycles and there are two references that you can make to how much this is costing per election, is there a significant difference in the amount that you end up asking for?

I’m just trying to think about the possibility of streamlining the approach. Like, if you knew it was going to be so many millions of dollars per election cycle, you could include it in a budget as up to so much so that you don’t have to come back for supplementary requests.

A. Boegman: I think, in terms of our approach this far….

[11:20 a.m.]

Perhaps, before I get into that, I’ll acknowledge your earlier comments and would like to say that the detail that we’re able to put into our presentations, of course, is provided by the excellent work done by my staff at Elections B.C., particularly Jodi Cooke, executive director of electoral finance.

Because we come to the committee on an annual basis, it’s very easy for us to include these events that are known, beyond the legislation, and to include them into the requests for the subsequent fiscal year. We also provide estimates for out-years and can make reference to the additional requirements that are known at those times. I think, now that it is in an established process, it works very seamlessly for us to make the requests on each year when we present our budget requirements to the committee.

I think at the beginning, when we were first implementing these new changes, it required a number of supplemental meetings with the committee because the timing of the legislation was such that it was not possible for us to incorporate that into our annual budget presentations. However, now that the legislation is well established and our procedures are established, it is very straightforward for us to include those with our annual budget request.

J. Brar (Chair): Thank you. I have a question. I kind of understand, but I think I would like to have some further clarification.

You’re saying that the political party needs 2 percent of the eligible vote to be eligible — that’s for the political party, right? — and 5 percent is for the individual constituency. So if a political party, for example, runs only 50 percent of the candidates in 50 percent of the constituencies, and they get 5 percent from each, they will be eligible that way?

A. Boegman: That is correct. There are those two different eligibility criteria. As mentioned, one is 2 percent in all districts across the province, and the other one is 5 percent in those districts where the party ran candidates.

As I mentioned, in terms of what we have seen over the past few general elections where it has been applicable, following 2017, the parties that were eligible were the B.C. Green Party, the B.C. NDP and the B.C. Liberal Party. All three of those parties qualified because they received at least 2 percent of valid votes in all of the electoral districts in the province. There were no parties in the 2017 general election that qualified on the other basis, which is 5 percent in those ridings where they ran candidates.

Following the recent October 2020 election, both the B.C. NDP and the B.C. Liberal Party received their allowances based on the 2 percent in all districts in the province, but the B.C. Green Party, the B.C. Conservative Party and the Rural B.C. Party didn’t run candidates in all electoral districts but did receive at least 5 percent of the total valid votes in the districts that they did run candidates in.

I hope that’s clear, in terms of the two different eligibility criteria.

J. Brar (Chair): Yes, thanks. The other question I want to ask you is from the administrative point of view, if you’re able to respond to that. There are other jurisdictions doing a similar thing. Are they different than us, in terms of the administration of their laws? If there is a difference, how is that different?

A. Boegman: Certainly. I’m actually going to ask Jodi Cooke to respond to this question, because I know she has done the research in this area for me.

J. Cooke: Thank you, Anton.

You are correct. There are several Canadian jurisdictions that have similar annual allowance payments established by legislation. However, each jurisdiction is slightly different and has specific requirements around eligibility, the calculation and the frequency and schedule at which those payments are made.

Some jurisdictions, like B.C., have a threshold that a party must achieve in order to be eligible, while others are paid to all registered political parties that participate in an election. For example, legislation in Nova Scotia establishes that a payment must be made to every registered political party based on the proportion or percentage of the vote that they received in the last general election.

[11:25 a.m.]

The calculations are either set as a set dollar amount, prescribed by legislation, as it is currently in British Columbia, or it can be a set amount that is proportionally divided, based on the percentage of votes received in the last general election. For example, New Brunswick has a set amount for public funding that is preset. Then that amount is appropriated and divided on a proportional basis to eligible political parties, based on the percentage of votes that they receive in the election.

The schedule and frequency also varies. Nova Scotia pays the annual allowances twice per year, similar to B.C. However, their payments are made in April and October. Some jurisdictions, like Ontario and New Brunswick, pay their allowances quarterly. Quebec’s legislation allows for the allowance to be paid either quarterly or monthly, based on consultation with authorized parties.

Of all the Canadian jurisdictions that currently pay annual allowances, B.C.’s current legislation is most similar to Ontario’s. The eligibility criteria is set at 2 percent provincewide, or 5 percent in the districts where a party endorses candidates, and the calculation is based on a set dollar amount, established by legislation, multiplied by the number of votes they received in the previous general election.

In addition to paying the allowance more frequently, as I mentioned, there is one significant difference between Ontario and British Columbia. That is that both the political party and its registered constituency associations can qualify to receive an annual allowance payment. The al­lowances for constituency associations is set as a dollar amount per electoral district. It’s currently $6,600. That amount is proportionately shared by all registered constituency associations where the candidate that they’re representing receives sufficient votes in a district.

This funding model is believed to have a direct correlation to the number of constituency associations that are registered. In Ontario, there are approximately 500 registered constituency associations, so that they can opti­mize their public funding model, compared to only three registered constituency associations in British Columbia currently.

I will also add that the annual allowances in Ontario were scheduled to end this year. However, legislation has recently been introduced that would extend the annual allowance payments in Ontario to 2024 and is proposing an increase to the amount paid.

In contrast, the Canadian jurisdiction with allowance payments that is least like B.C. is probably Quebec. In Quebec, all parties are eligible to receive annual allowances. There is no threshold for qualification. The amount is calculated as $1.64 per registered voter in the province. Then that amount is proportionately divided based on the number of votes each party receives in the election. The amount that’s specified in legislation also increases each year per changes to the consumer price index or inflation.

In addition to the annual allowance that’s paid in Quebec, there is also an allowance of $1 per registered voter, again divided on a proportional basis, at the time an election is called. There is an allowance for matching political contributions. For each dollar raised by a party, they can receive $2.50, as a way to additionally raise more money.

While Quebec may appear to have the most generous allowance rules in Canada, they also have the lowest contribution limit. That’s probably to offset those rules. In Quebec, each political party can only accept up to $100 from an eligible elector, which in B.C. is compared to our $1,200.

There are also some jurisdictions in Canada that have previously had annual allowances. Manitoba established annual allowances in 2013, whereby an allowance commissioner would be appointed after each election to decide on the amount of the allowance. This legislation was repealed in 2016. Similarly, there were annual allowances that were paid to federal political parties, but those were phased out and discontinued in 2015.

Perhaps now I will pause, because I’ve said a lot of words, and confirm that that answered your questions, or if you have any specific details that you would like me to elaborate on.

J. Brar (Chair): Thanks, Jodi. That’s good information, a lot of information. You have done a really good job on that one. I really appreciate that.

Members, we have more opportunity to ask questions. Anybody else want to ask a question?

[11:30 a.m.]

A. Mercier: I just have a follow-up for Jodi, in terms of eligibility. I hear you saying there’s a pretty vast difference in the way that eligibility is determined under the different regimes across the country. I’m thinking of Nova Scotia and Quebec, where anyone who’s registered with the appropriate elections body as a party is eligible.

Do we roughly have the same number of registered political parties they do? Does that incentivize the registration of more parties and the formation of more parties? Is there any evidence to that effect, or does it kind of shake out roughly the same?

J. Cooke: I haven’t done a formal analysis to that question. I will say that, roughly, British Columbia tends to have more registered political parties, on average, compared to other Canadian jurisdictions. Part of the reason behind that is that the requirements to register a provincial political party are quite easy in B.C., whereas in other jurisdictions, there can be a few more hurdles that a party needs to reach in order to register, such as having endorsed signatures or a set number of members.

In British Columbia, the requirements to register a party are that you need to have at least two principal officers, a financial agent, an auditor and a political party name that has not been used by another party in the last ten years. So generally, we see a lot of smaller parties register in B.C.

In some of the other jurisdictions, I wouldn’t say that annual allowance has necessarily paid a direct relation to their numbers. Generally, there’s between five to ten registered parties in other jurisdictions. Currently in British Columbia, we have about 17.

J. Brar (Chair): Thank you.

Members, any further questions? I don’t see any hands, Members. One more time. Any further questions, Members?

A. Olsen: I have no question. As there are no more questions, it doesn’t seem, I just want to thank our friends from Elections B.C. for providing us information as to how the administration works from your side of this policy. So thank you very much for your presentation today.

J. Brar (Chair): Thanks, Adam.

If there are no further questions, thanks, Anton, and thanks, Jodi, for joining us today to provide committee members the much-needed information. So thank you to both of you. Thanks a lot.

A. Boegman: Thank you very much for the opportunity to make a presentation.

J. Brar (Chair): Members, that was Elections B.C. Is there any other business anybody wanted to discuss?

R. Leonard: Actually, Chair, everyone else was acknowledging the First Nations whose territory we are sitting in and operating from.

I was so distracted by my lack of audio that I forgot to mention that I am sitting here today in the unceded territories of the K’ómoks First Nation.

I just wanted to make sure that was on the record. Very happy to be a part of this place.

J. Brar (Chair): Any further comment, Members? I don’t see any.

Members, a motion to adjourn the meeting — Ronna-Rae. Second, Adam.

Motion approved.

The committee adjourned at 11:34 a.m.