It’s a question that almost certainly has come up more than once on the hustings over the years: When is a campaign volunteer no longer a volunteer?

When does a self-employed supporter’s after-hours efforts on the behalf of a party or candidate constitute a non-monetary contribution, subject to the same rules that govern financial donations?

Elections Canada is hoping to clear up any lingering confusion with a new interpretation bulletin, a draft version of which was posted to the agency website last week.

Read the draft interpretation note on the Elections Canada website.

Under current election laws, “volunteer labour is any service provided to a political entity free of charge outside a person’s working hours,” the document notes.

“It excludes a service provided by a self-employed person who normally charges for that service, which is instead a non-monetary contribution” — an exemption that, it says, has resulted in “several questions” arising over the application of those rules.

“When is a person self-employed? How do the rules apply to people who work on-call or variable hours? Can volunteers receive compensation or gifts?”

As far as the definition of “self-employed” goes, the Canada Elections Act is silent, which is why the agency has turned to the dictionary — Merriam Webster, which characterizes self-employment as “earning income directly from one’s own business, trade, or profession rather than as a specified salary or wages from an employer.”

(This, as the draft document points out, doesn’t directly address the self-incorporated self-employed. As far as Elections Canada is concerned, anyone who receives wages, minus payroll deductions, and a T4 for tax filing purposes is an employee and free to volunteer their services at any point, even if it overlaps with what they do during their day job.)

So, basically, if you’re self-employed and you earn your living providing a particular service — house-painting, to use the example provided by Elections Canada — you can’t offer that same service to a party, candidate or campaign as a off-the-books freebie.

That likely would be treated as a non-monetary contribution and would have to come from an individual; corporations, associations and trade unions aren’t allowed to donate to political entities. It also would be subject to the cap on annual personal donations — $1,550.

Or it could be provided as a commercial service — which would mean charging the party or campaign the lowest rate that they would normally charge for the good or service in question.

The draft bulletin also includes guidelines for volunteering while on-call, or working variable hours, as well as paying volunteers for some of their work and handing out “nominal” gifts (of no more than $50 in value) or throwing a thank-you party for supporters after the campaign wraps up.

Registered parties, candidates and other participants in the political process have until January 17 to submit their thoughts or concerns on Elections Canada’s take on the self-employed volunteer.