'Large sums of money': Group wants corporate and union donations banned from 2020 city election
Change would open up race to new candidates: commission
A commission is bucking against the wishes of Saskatoon's previous city council and again calling for an end to corporate and union donations for people running for Saskatoon office.
The change, if approved by current city councillors, could have a drastic impact on candidates' abilities to fundraise for the coming 2020 municipal election — if the last election is any indication.
During the 2016 race, almost one third of the total money raised by the campaigns of elected candidates came from corporate and union donations of more than $100, according to candidates' disclosures of campaign contributions.
Current councillors raised a total of $360,226 (including money from fundraising events and donations in kind) during their election campaigns. Of that, $103,424 came from corporate and union donations over $100.
Mayor Charlie Clark received just over a quarter of his $202,956 campaign contributions from businesses, unions and other groups. Some, including the two most sizeable contributions, were either partially or fully in-kind.
1 business gave over $11,000 in goods and services
Two businesses, Internet software developer Quadrant New Media Corp. and web design and marketing firm Danger Dynamite, provided $12,800 and $11,840.50 worth of support for Clark, respectively. More than half of Quadrant's contribution was in-kind, while all of Danger Dynamite's was in-kind.
In-kind contributions are goods and services with a dollar value attached to them.
(Life of Pi author and Saskatoon resident Yann Martel, while not a corporate donor, ranked third overall among Clark contributors. He gave $10,000 in cash.)
Ward 3 councillor Ann Iwanchuk received 10 contributions over $100 from unions and labour groups totalling $10,095 — four fifths of the total raised for her campaign. Some of those were donations in-kind.
Iwanchuk is a negotiator, mediator and arbitration specialist with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), according to her councillor profile. Five CUPE groups gave to her campaign in 2016.
'Opening the political process'
"We continue to see large sums of money donated to candidates, sometimes from single business or union contributors," the Saskatoon Municipal Review Commission wrote in its latest electoral reform report to the city.
Those contributions should be banned "in the spirit of opening the political process to any existing or new political candidates," the commission added.
The commission made the same recommendation back in 2015, but city councillors of the time quashed the idea in a 7-4 vote.
Then-mayor Don Atchison plus councillors Troy Davies, Randy Donauer, Pat Lorje, Eric Olauson, Tiffany Paulsen and Iwanchuk outnumbered Clark and fellow councillors Darren Hill, Zach Jeffries and Mairin Loewen.
Other cities ban them: commission
The commission wants to give the idea another try, however.
"[We] felt that it was best practice in many other like-sized jurisdictions and there were a number of new councillors now on council that perhaps had never read the original report," said Linda Moulin, the commission's vice-chair.
"When we look at the contributors or the donations to the people who are running in our election, and those stand out in terms of size and impact that they can have in the candidates' running, then you have to question that," she added.
Raising more money doesn't necessarily equate to winning over your opponent, as Atchison found out.
Atchison's campaign raised over $6,000 more in total contributions than Clark but Atchison lost the race to Clark anyway.
On the other hand, Iwanchuk's challenger, Mark Mills, had $8,045 in total campaign contributions (compared to Iwanchuk's $12,560) and all of that money came from Mills himself.
Previous council nixed ban
The City of Saskatoon is not recommending the commission's proposed campaign fundraising change but is suggesting it be taken as information, pointing to the 7-4 vote on the issue by the previous council.
Donauer of Ward 5 received $4,350 in corporate and union donations over $100 in 2016 — 28 per cent of his campaign contributions. He's against the ban.
"In municipal politics or municipal government, we raise our taxes by property tax assessment and quite frankly businesses have to pay property taxes and quite frankly in Ward 5, a huge area of my geography is businesses that contribute very substantially to property tax revenues here in Saskatoon," Donauer said.
"So to ask them to basically have no representation or no ability to participate in an election while they're being taxed at one and a half times a resident, I don't think it's fair."
Hill, whose 2016 campaign for Ward 1 received $6,969 in corporate or union donations over $100, said he's "perfectly fine" with ending the practice.
Familiar names
Real estate developers turned up frequently as donors to Saskatoon candidates.
Saskatoon-based North Prairie Developments gave money to 8 out of 11 current city councillors during the 2016 election.
Vancouver-based Arbutus Properties gave $1,500 apiece to councillors Hill, Dubois and Jeffries. The company recently asked the city to directly negotiate the sale of its city yards property, touting plans to develop a grocery store near the downtown core.
ICR gave to Clark, Donauer, Block and Davies while Dream Development favoured Dubois and Davies.
City's delayed response 'concerning'
The commission is made up of consultants Moulin and Jennifer Lester; accountant Paul Jaspar; Charles Smith, a political science associate professor at the University of Saskatchewan; retired Court of Queen's Bench Justice Merri-Ellen Wright Merri-Ellen Wright; and Joan White.
The group made its recommendation (and others) 11 months ago. Councillors asked the city to weigh in, which the city has now done.
Moulin said the delay is "concerning."
"I can't speak for the commission; this is my own personal belief; but it's very frustrating when you do all the work, you put in the report, and it takes this length of time to be considered at council," she said on Sunday.
"There are very professional, highly qualified people on this commission and I think we could spend our time better elsewhere if it's not going to be considered and debated and moved forward."
The city is open to other changes suggested by the commission, such as an assistant returning officer to help out the chief returning officer for the six months or so leading to the election.
The full set of recommendations is up for discussion at city hall Tuesday afternoon some time after 1 p.m. The meeting is open to the public.
A councillor by councillor breakdown of corporate and union donations during the 2016 election can be viewed below. Don't see it? Click here.
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