Delay in posting political donations 'encouraging abuse,' says democracy advocate

It's been more than a year since the 2015 provincial election, but Elections Newfoundland and Labrador still hasn't publicly posted a list of donations to candidates and political parties.

The most recent filings posted on its website are from 2014.

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The head of Democracy Watch says that is not good for accountability.

"Secrecy is a recipe for corruption and abuse and waste and it obscures the influence of how the donations may be affecting policy making and the handing out of contracts and other government decisions," said Duff Conacher.

We would rather have the information correct online, rather than put it up there and have to take it down because it wasn't correct.- Bruce Chaulk, Chief Electoral Officer

"It's really essentially encouraging abuse by having such excessive secrecy and that's why Newfoundland and Labrador's system is one of the worst systems in the country."

The head of Elections Newfoundland and Labrador said all the information isn't posted until all the information is checked and finalized, and that's still more than a month away.

"We were still receiving candidate files up until November 2016," said Bruce Chaulk.

Chaulk said once all the information is received and checked, the report is finalized and made available online.

"Once you post something online it's there forever, so if it's wrong it's going to be wrong forever," said Chaulk.

"We would rather have the information correct online, rather than put it up there and have to take it down because it wasn't correct."

Chaulk said people can still go into Elections Newfoundland and Labrador's office if they want to look at a file, but more than a quarter of the way into the Liberal's mandate the public doesn't know who donated to its election campaign.

'No excuse' for not posting info faster

Elections Canada takes a different approach. Within months of the 2015 federal election it posted candidate financial information.

The agency then posted a final version after it audited the information.

Other provinces are even faster. In Ontario donations are logged into a public database within 10 days.

"There's absolutely no excuse why that system should not be in place in Newfoundland and Labrador," said Conacher.

Kelly Blidook, who teaches political science at Memorial University, agrees that donation information needs to be in real time.

Premier Dwight Ball cited the publishing of donation information as the reason why limits aren't needed.

But Blidook said it's hard to see if donations may be influencing politicians if you don't find out about a donation until two years after it was made.

"It's a really big deal," said Blidook.

"If you have reporting in real time, then if a bill is brought forward or a decision is made then you can come at it with that information immediately and say 'this needs to change, there's a problem right now' and it's being done at at a time that it can."