N.B. government clamps down on election spending by interest groups

The New Brunswick government is setting up new rules on how special interest groups can operate during provincial elections, forcing groups to register with Elections New Brunswick and adhere to spending limits.

The amendments to the Political Process Financing Act were to be introduced in the legislature on Friday and would clamp down on how much money third-party groups can spend in the cut and thrust of provincial campaigns.

The bill would define a third-party organization as any person or group that is not a registered political party, local riding association or candidate. These groups could set up to fight a specific issue, such as toll highways or carbon taxes, and are presently unregulated.

'One wonders if they are thinking ahead to the next election campaign and if community groups mount a campaign against them.' —Tom Bateman, St. Thomas University political science professor

The provincial government is basing its spending limits on the 2004 Supreme Court of Canada decision that was instigated by Prime Minister Stephen Harper when he was the head of the conservative National Citizens Coalition. The top court ruled that a law limiting spending by these groups was constitutionally acceptable.

Tom Bateman, a political science professor at St. Thomas University, said limits on third-party spending favour established political parties because it tends to keep debate within the traditional channels during the course of an election campaign. Most third-party groups, he said, tend to be populist organizations that want to take on the establishment.

However, the political scientist said he's unsure why the Liberals are introducing these measures.

"The timing here is interesting because there is some significant delay between that court pronouncement and what the provincial government is doing here," Bateman said. "One wonders if they are thinking ahead to the next election campaign and if community groups mount a campaign against them."

Normally, Bateman said, he would expect the Opposition Conservatives to resist these reforms. But he said the federal Tory government's decision to remove subsidies for federal political parties in Thursday's fiscal update could hamper the provincial party's ability to argue they are in support of free speech in elections.

Recently retired Supreme Court justice Michel Bastarache, author of the majority decision in the 2004 case, wrote: "Without the limits, a few wealthy groups could drown out others in debates on important political issues."

The three dissenting judges in the decision called the law a serious limitation on free speech that cannot be justified under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. There is no evidence that without spending limits, wealthy Canadians could dominate political debate during a campaign, they wrote.

$11,271 cap

Under the proposed provincial legislation, once a group spends $500 during a provincial election on advertising it must sign up with Elections New Brunswick.

Each third-party advertiser will be held to a maximum of 1.3 per cent of the election expense limit for registered political parties, which means a third-party advertising cap of $11,271. In local riding races, these groups will be able to spend 10 per cent of what political parties can, or $1,127. Those limits are in line with what the Supreme Court of Canada's ruling said is acceptable.

Two or more third parties will be blocked from advertising in unison — which would be a way to skirt the spending limits — under the proposed law.

The move to regulate election spending by special interest groups comes as a bit of a surprise. The Liberal government did not mention the issue last year when it outlined various other forthcoming reforms to improve citizen engagement.

However, the 2005 Commission on Legislative Democracy report did make a passing reference to it when it discussed a new Elections Act. The independent group called for publishing of financial information from parties, riding associations and third-party groups in elections, byelections, referendums, nomination contests and leadership races.