Mr. Taylor: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday the Minister of Municipal Affairs responded to my questions by saying that the government wants to “level the playing field” with election financing laws for municipalities. 

But here’s the thing. The individual wards in Edmonton and Calgary are bigger than many entire municipalities, with 60,000 or more constituents. So what playing field is the minister trying to level, the urban-metro one with 60,000-plus constituents or the rural one with 10,000?

The Speaker: The hon. minister.

Mr. Goudreau: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Certainly, I was reiterating some of the comments that we are hearing from Albertans in general. Albertans are believing in accountability, and they are wanting to see transparency within their local governments. They believe that those issues are important. So part of the process of Bill 203 was the fact that we are trying to have the same rules for every elected official across the province of Alberta.

The Speaker: The hon. member.

Mr. Taylor: Well, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would think that you would be trying to raise the bar rather than lower the bar. Given that the city of Edmonton has election financing rules that are already more comprehensive and in some ways stricter than the provincial rules, is the government trying to make Edmonton conform to weakened average provincial rules?

Mr. Goudreau: Mr. Speaker, certainly the regulations and the rules and the amendments to the bill that are coming forward will provide some clarity to all municipal elected officials. I recognize that Edmonton has their own rules and regulations. When we do introduce the amendments, it’s going to complement those types of decisions that they’ve made in the past.

Mr. Taylor: Well, Mr. Speaker, I don’t know about clarity, but there’s a big fat catch-22 here. Candidates are individually responsible for their campaign debts, but if the debt is greater than $5,000, they can’t pay it individually because that would contravene the act’s limits. How would the minister advise that this situation be addressed?

Mr. Goudreau: Mr. Speaker, I think, you know, aside from disclosing the information that will be coming up after our break, that clarity will be provided when we introduce the amendments.

Alberta Hansard, February 23, 2010

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