Political parties must now disclose costs of N.B. election promises

As New Brunswick's fall election inches closer, political parties have now passed the 90-days-before-the-vote threshold.

And that means stricter disclosure rules are now in place.

From now until the election, scheduled for Oct. 21, political parties must file a disclosure statement with Elections N.B. indicating the estimated cost for every campaign commitment made. 

"The intent was, of course, to provide transparency to the electors, to voters of what the costs of commitments being made during an election campaign would mean to them at the end of the day as taxpayers," said Paul Harpelle, director of communications with Elections N.B. in an interview with CBC's Shift radio program.

Harpelle said there are three options parties can choose to provide on the disclosure forms: a cost estimate, a maximum cost estimate, or they can check a box that says no estimate has been provided.

"We ourselves have no control in validating whether or not the costing that they provide is sound," Harpelle said, but added that rival political parties can provide accountability by checking the numbers themselves. 

Harpelle said the goal is to "make sure that they've actually filed and that they've checked all the correct boxes in these different disclosure statements."

All of these cost disclosures will be available publicly on the Elections N.B. website, under the "Political Financing" tab. As of Thursday, none of the six registered parties in New Brunswick have provided any disclosures.

When asked if Blaine Higgs's recent promise to reduce the HST if elected would need to be outlined in a cost estimate disclosure, Harpelle said not technically, since it was made on July 18, just days outside the 90-day window.

But if the party states the promise again within the 90-day window, this "will have to be followed by a disclosure statement," Harpelle said.

On Thursday, now within 90 days of the election, a post on X, formerly Twitter, by the Progressive Conservative Party promised the same commitment again.

"In this election, there is only one Party who will cut the HST. The choice couldn't be more clear to make life more affordable," the post states.

Included in the post is a photo of Blaine Higgs as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party under the words "will cut HST" next to side-by-side photos of Liberal Leader Susan Holt and Green Leader David Coon under the words "won't cut HST."

Financial estimates for political promises are due by Sept 19, the day the writs of election are issued, Harpelle said.

Most commitments made between Sept. 19 and election day require a disclosure to be filed to Elections N.B. on the same day they are made, he said.

There's an exception for commitments made by a party leader, which have a three-day window for estimates to be filed. This is to account for commitments made during a debate or leader's speech, Harpelle said.

Once the forms are filed, the supervisor of political financing has two days to examine the forms to make sure they are correct. If there are any errors or omissions, the chief electoral officer will reach out to the party to ask for a fix.

"If there are issues where they do not comply, then there are some consequences," Harpelle said.

A party could be prohibited from advertising for the rest of the election or be issued an administrative penalty, he said.

Harpelle said Elections N.B. held a training session for party officials earlier this year to go over the Transparency in Elections Commitment Act, which was proclaimed in 2018 and includes the financial disclosure requirement. 

This would only be the second New Brunswick election to fall under the disclosure requirement, since the 2020 election was called early. Unscheduled elections like that do not require financial disclosures to be filed for commitments.