The provincial government wants to ban all corporate and union donations for municipal candidates across Ontario, in attempt to “level the playing field.”

Initially the province had proposed passing legislation as part of Bill 181, the proposed Municipal Elections Modernization Act, which would give municipalities the power to make their own decision on whether to change the contentious fundraising rules.

But on Wednesday, a day after the province introduced legislation to ban corporate and union donations at the provincial level, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Ted McMeekin said it only made sense to follow suit at the municipal level.

“There was a growing sense…that we should eliminate potential contracts with people who are perceived exerting inordinate influence,” said McMeekin, in an interview, adding that the ban would apply to all council candidates and would-be school board trustees in all 445 Ontario municipalities. “The simplest way to do that was to ban corporate and union donations,” he said. “Initially, the government wanted to make it optional, but when we have been hearing such consensus, we thought to be proactive,” he said.

Those who have been advocating for such a ban welcomed the minister’s comments. “This is exactly what we campaigning for,” said Claire Malcolmson, who works with Campaign Fairness Ontario, which published a recent study which found a troubling relationship between corporate funding and election outcomes in Ontario. “This is going to change the landscape of municipal councils,” she said.

Malcolmson said while it would be “naïve” to think “we will be able to eliminate the relationship between developers and candidates,” she called it a “step in the right direction.”

But not everyone is fully onside with the proposed changes.

Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie said she welcomed what she called “new efforts to strengthen local democracy.”

Still, Crombie added in a statement, “consultation with all municipalities is necessary when making changes of this magnitude and I would welcome the opportunity to provide feedback on these brand new proposed amendments the legislation currently being debated.” she said.

“We need to balance the need to hold accountable and transparent municipal elections with the realities of running responsive local campaigns. This is especially important in large and growing cities like Mississauga, home to nearly 800,000 residents.”

Crombie also said what makes sense at the provincial level doesn’t necessarily work municipally.

“Unlike provincial election campaigns, candidates for local government do not have per-vote subsidies and they cannot fundraise year round. The proposed changes could also favor incumbent politicians,” Crombie said.

In Toronto, a political action group that includes Toronto education workers says the new ban on union donations is bad for democracy. Toronto banned corporate and union donations in 2009, prior to the 2010 election, but the new legislation would extend to school board trustee candidates too.

“We’re not pleased. It affects our ability to engage in the democratic process, and we tend to support candidates who don’t have a lot of financial resources,” said Stephen Seaborn, coordinator of the Campaign for Public Education, which is currently supporting trustee candidates in two byelections for the Toronto District School Board.

These campaigns will not be affected by the new amendments, which will go back to the house for debate and to be voted on in coming weeks. If the legislation is enacted, it will be in force for 2018 municipal elections across the province.

Ajax mayor Steve Parrish, who said he has been pushing for reform at the municipal level for decades, says the ban will make a big difference at the local level.

“It frees councils from an outside influence that is often centered on private interests, and not on the public interests,” he said. “It leads to better decision making in the public interest….and I think it will lead to better planning,” he said.

He says that municipalities will have to introduce way to replace this source of funding, by creating a rebate program that allows individual donors to get a tax rebate for contributing to a candidate’s campaign. Only a few cities, like Ajax, Toronto, Markham and Vaughan have implemented this program so far, he said.

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He says the province also needs to consider how to “police” those working in corporations who go around the ban, by making donations as individuals. But he said despite the gaps, the legislation will help to make the election process more transparent and fair.

“In the past, I could point at my opponent and say, you are taking corporate donations. He could say, well, there’s nothing wrong with that and it doesn’t affect my vote,” he said. “Now you can point at them and say, you are breaking the law.”

with files from Louise Brown and San Grewal

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