NDP Leader Andrea Horwath says it’s time to consider doing away with corporate and union donations to provincial political parties.

“It is something that has happened federally . . . it certainly is worth looking at,” she told reporters at Queen’s Park Friday.

Horwath was reacting to a Star story revealing that a Progressive Conservative MPP said he and his colleagues were told by senior party officials that pushing legislation to help a construction company would boost donations to the Tories.

Randy Hillier sent an email, obtained by the Star, to his colleagues in May raising concerns over a closed-door caucus meeting where it was “stated quite specifically” that the party would “benefit financially” by supporting the proposed legislation, which is intended to give construction company EllisDon relief from a once-dormant union agreement dating back to 1958.

“I am genuinely concerned that we are walking on thin ice” ethically, the member for Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington wrote in his email in May.

There has been no suggestion that EllisDon acted inappropriately and both the company and the Progressive Conservatives strongly deny any wrongdoing.

Tory MPP Monte McNaughton’s private member’s bill received second reading with support from MPPs from the Liberal Party, which has historic ties with EllisDon. The bill is to be referred to a legislative committee for debate.

“I think people raise their eyebrows when they see that political parties — in this case both Liberals and Conservatives are willing to change legislation particularly for one company that has been a generous donor,” Horwath said.

“It’s something that turns people off politics and gives them a sense of distrust about the motivation of policy-makers,” she said.

The federal government, Quebec, Manitoba and the City of Toronto have all banned corporate and union donations. The Ontario Liberal government once entertained the idea but decided against it.

McNaughton (Lambton—Kent—Middlesex) has praised his party for going to bat for EllisDon to reverse an Ontario Labour Relations Board Feb. 13, 2012 decision that upheld the closed-shop agreement dating to 1958, which locks the company into using unionized workers.

.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

McNaughton explained it was him rather than Hillier, the Tories’ labour critic, who presented the private member’s bill because of the proximity of his riding to London, Ont. the home of EllisDon.

“I am actually extremely proud of this legislation . . . it fits with our modernizing of labour laws. This company entered into an agreement in 1958 with unions in Sarnia and a Labour Relations Board ruling … is forcing EllisDon to hire only unionized employees now right across the province. It’s unfair,” he said.

Read more about: