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This article was published 23/9/2014 (2189 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg firefighters are dismissing complaints that their endorsement of mayoral candidate Judy Wasylycia-Leis breaches municipal finance rules.

"...The new campaign finance legislation is... very clear: neither businesses nor unions can contribute to political campaigns — not money, or donations-in-kind like shirts, signs, or paid employees’ time, and (Monday’s) announcement appeared to involve all of the above," mayoral candidate Robert-Falcon Ouellette said in a release Tuesday.

Alex Forrest, president of United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg, said the union has not broken any rules in its endorsement of Wasylycia-Leis.

"It’s a stupid complaint," Forrest said of concerns raised Tuesday by Ouellette.

Dozens of firefighters wearing yellow "Fire Fighters for Judy" T-shirts attended their union’s event Monday.

Ouellette said the firefighters breached the law because the shirts and similar signs will have to be billed to Wasylycia-Leis’ campaign account.

But Forrest said the signs and shirts were paid for by the Wasylycia-Leis campaign.

"They were all invoiced to her campaign," Forrest said. "Ouellette doesn’t know what he’s talking about."

A spokesman for Wasylycia-Leis’ campaign confirmed the firefighter shirts and signs are being treated as a campaign expense.

Forrest also dismissed suggestions by Ouellette that the volunteer time of the firefighters who will be working on Wasylycia-Leis’ campaign should be considered a donation in kind and billed as part of her expenses.

Forrest said volunteer time isn’t a campaign expense, adding the complaints by Ouellette reveal his lack of knowledge of the process.

"It just goes to show why (Ouellette) is not considered a legitimate candidate," Forrest said. "He just doesn’t understand the complexity of the process. We don’t need someone like that to be mayor."

A spokesman for Ouellette said he is considering making a formal complaint to the city clerk’s department.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca