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Elections B.C. has issued the B.C. Liberal Party a $200 fine for accepting a prohibited corporate donation.

According to Elections B.C.’s letter to Liberal Party financial agent David Goldsmith, the Liberals accepted a $500 contribution from Sullivan Mechanical Ltd., a service contractor and installer based in Prince Rupert, on July 27, 2018.

The letter states that this donation is in direct contravention to Section 187 (1.01) of the B.C. Elections Act, which states that “a financial agent or an individual authorized under subsection (1) must not accept a political contribution from a person other than an eligible individual.”

In 2017, the B.C. provincial government passed legislation banning political donations from corporations and unions.

The base-level fine for accepting a barred political donation is $250 for the first offence, or 25 percent of the maximum penalty of $1000. However, it reduced the fine by $50 after weighing the specifics of the situation.

On one hand, Elections B.C. raised concerns about how the B.C. Liberal Party’s financial agent “did not have adequate safeguards in place to prevent” this kind of donation from taking place. This led the watchdog agency to add a $100 fine increase, to $350.

However, the letter also noted that the Liberal Party has no history of accepting these illegal donations and has cooperated with the investigation. Likewise, it has also taken preventive measures to stop these kinds of donations from happening in the future. For instance, it has added a filter to its donations page “to restrict donor names with words such as limited, Ltd, Corp, and Inc.”.

These factors led Elections B.C. to suggest a $150 fine reduction, with the final fine totalling $200.

The B.C. Liberals have 30 days to pay the fine.

Last week, Kelowna West MLA Ben Stewart removed himself from the B.C. Liberal caucus in relation to a donation made to the Liberal party that is being investigated by Elections B.C.

When asked in a phone interview with the Georgia Straight if there was any connection between the two cases, Elections B.C. communications director Rebecca Penz said: “As far as we’re aware, they’re completely unrelated.”