Article content continued

In the NDP’s proposal, the party calls for a $4,000 cap on total annual donations to Alberta political entities, while the Wildrose party wants a $5,000 limit on contributions to parties.

Jessica Littlewood, the NDP MLA who chairs the ethics and accountability committee, said she wouldn’t speculate about the impact of the parties’ submissions on the committee.

But while no decisions have yet been made about amounts, there is a consensus among committee members that lowering the donation limit is a priority, she said.

“When I talk to my constituents, what they’re most interested in right now is getting big money out of politics,” said the Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville MLA, who noted that one of the NDP’s first acts in office was to ban union and corporate political donations.

The New Democratic Party’s submission to the committee also calls for a reimbursement program, modelled on what is done federally, that would see parties get half of their election expenses back from the public purse. The party argues that such a move would help offset more stringent limits on fundraising.

Under such a plan, the NDP would have received over $800,000 back from the province after the 2015 election, while Wildrose would have gotten back about $550,000. The Progressive Conservatives, who spent big in a fruitless bid to stay in power in last spring’s election, would have been reimbursed by more than $4.1 million.

Littlewood was reluctant to comment on the idea, or other calls in written submissions for a per-vote subsidy, saying they are ideas that have been brought forward “amongst many other things.”