HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR REPORT OF THE CHIEF ELECTORAL OFFICER ON ELECTION FINANCES FOR THE OCTOBER 9, 2007 GENERAL ELECTION INTRODUCTION This Election Finance Report is an addendum document to the Report of the Chief Electoral Officer on the General Election for the Forty-Sixth General Assembly October 9, 2007 that was submitted to the Speaker of the House of Assembly on July 7, 2008. The original of this Report has been forwarded to the Queen’s Printer for the purpose of reproduction. Also, a copy has been supplied to the Legislative Librarian for further reference by Members of the House of Assembly and summary financial information is also available for viewing on the Elections Newfoundland and Labrador web page at www.gov.nl.ca/elections. Election finance provisions of the Elections Act, 1991 deal with the registration of candidates in a general election and the conduct of both political parties and candidates with respect to receipt of political contributions, limitations on election expenditures and the filing of required financial statements and reports. This report contains a summary of the financial information submitted under these provisions. The actual financial statements on which this summary is based can be viewed at the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer (OCEO) during normal business hours. FILING OF FINANCIAL STATEMENTS Section 304 of the Act specifies that the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of every registered political party or candidate shall, within four months after polling day, file with the Chief Electoral Officer a financial statement of income and expenses of the party or candidate for which he or she acts relating to the election, together with the auditor’s report as required by subsection 302(6). The OCEO has responsibility for conducting a review of these filings with a view to determining compliance with election finance legislation. The Act also provides that a CFO who willfully, or through neglect, fails to file a financial return with the Chief Electoral Officer within the required time frame is liable on summary conviction to a fine of $50.00 per day for each day until the filing is received. While my office understands that issues other than wilful intent or neglect can contribute to campaign filing delays, late filing of required returns is troubling because it negatively impacts the ability of my office to produce timely and useful financial reports for public viewing. 1 My office places the financial information relating to individual financial returns on display in our public viewing library in St. John’s once the information is received and has been reviewed. In the past, we have opted to delay posting that same information to our website until production of the requisite financial summary report was completed. We recognize following this procedure makes it difficult for interested parties outside of the St. John’s area to access the filed information on a timely basis. To resolve this discrepancy my office will, in future, post to our website, financial information relating to the annual filings for political parties and the filings for parties and candidates in general and by-elections in this province as soon as we complete review of the filings and are able to make that information available on line. It is also my intent that our website will contain information as to the status of any outstanding or non-posted filings until posting is actually completed. I further hope that following this process will be additional incentive for parties and candidates to file timely election finance statements. OCTOBER 9, 2007 GENERAL ELECTION FILINGS The death of Dr. Gerry Tobin, Liberal candidate for the district of Grand Falls-Windsor- Buchans, necessitated postponement of Election Day in that district to November 6, 2007. The postponement allowed the Liberal Party to name a replacement candidate for that district resulting in a separate filing for both liberal candidates and bringing the total number of candidate filings for the 2007 General Election to 137. In addition to candidate filings, my office received reports on campaign income and expenses from three of the four registered political parties who had nominated candidates for the Election. The Labrador Party did not incur expenses directly related to the General Election and did not file a report for the election period. The filing deadline for the required financial statements was March 6th, 2008 for the Grand Falls-Windsor-Buchans General Election and February 9, 2008 for every other district. In all, 13 of the 137 registered candidates failed to file their returns by the specified deadlines thereby forfeiting their entitlement to a refund of the $200.00 nomination fee deposit. Mr. Clayton Hobbs, Liberal candidate for the district of Bonavista South, withdrew from the campaign for medical reasons after the official close of nominations thereby forfeiting his 2 nomination fee deposit. As mentioned above, the Act provides for fines and/or penalties on summary conviction for a CFO who either willfully, or through neglect, fails to file a financial return with the Chief Electoral Officer within the time required by legislation. I have completed a review of the circumstances concerning all late filings to determine whether proceedings should be instituted on the grounds of willful intent or negligence by the respective chief financial officers. My conclusion as to the reasons for the late filings is that there was no willful or negligent action on the part of the CFOs and the decision was made not to pursue charges. Appendix A to this report presents a summary of the income and expense statements for the three registered political parties who incurred election related expenses and a district by district summary of the income and expense statements for all candidates. As previously noted, the actual financial statements on which this summary is based may be viewed at the OCEO during normal business hours. POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS Subsection 299(4) of the Act requires that a registered party and a candidate in an election shall, along with the statements of income and expenses for the election required by Section 304, file a listing with respect to contributions received in a campaign period that either individually or in sum exceed $100.00 together with the name and address of the contributor(s). In addition, Subsection 299(3) of the Act provides that a registered political party shall file an annual return and listing with respect to contributions made to the party in a calendar year. To avoid duplication of these listings, Appendix B to this report contains a comprehensive listing of political contributions for the 2007 General Election made to the reporting candidates only. Contributions made to the reporting political parties during this period are summarized in a separate report titled “ANNUAL REPORT OF THE CHIEF ELECTORAL OFFICER ON ELECTION FINANCES OF REGISTERED POLITICAL PARTIES FOR THE PERIOD JANUARY 1, 2007 TO DECEMBER 31, 2007.” ELECTION EXPENSES Section 310 of the Act places limitations on the amount that political parties and candidates 3 are permitted to spend on certain types of election expenses. A political party in a general election is limited to expenditure not to exceed $3.125 (adjusted for inflation) times the number of persons on the revised list of electors in each district the party has candidates. Election expenses of a candidate are limited to that same factor multiplied by the number of persons on the revised list of electors in the district in which he or she is a candidate, but in no case shall a party’s or candidate’s expenses be limited to an amount less than $12,000 (adjusted for inflation). The dollar factors of $3.125 and $12,000 specified under Section 310 of the Act are adjusted annually by the Chief Electoral Officer for changes in the consumer price index. The factors applicable for the 2007 General Election were $3.83 and $14,719 respectively. A listing of Individual district limits applicable to the 2007 General Election is presented in Appendix C to this report. Each of the political parties and all of the candidates who filed returns relating to the Election were found to be in compliance with expenditure limits. PUBLIC SUBSIDIZATION OF CANDIDATES EXPENSES Section 312 of the Act entitles a candidate who receives at least 15 per cent of the popular vote in his or her electoral district to a reimbursement of election expenses from the Provincial Treasury equal to the lesser of one-third of the expense limit for the district or one-third of actual qualifying expenses. For the 2007 General Election, 80 of the 137 candidates received at least 15 per cent of the popular vote in their district thereby qualifying for subsidy payments that totalled $421,314.71, with individual amounts payable ranging from a low of $307.97 to a high of $10,073.74. Section 313 of the Act provides that any campaign surplus created either from political contributions, transfers or the payment of election expense subsidies be, in the case of a candidate whose political affiliation appears on the ballot, remitted to his or her party, and in all other cases remitted to the Chief Electoral Officer who shall hold the money in trust on behalf of the candidate to be used in the next general or by-election. If the candidate does not run in the next election, the surplus funds held in trust are remitted to the Provincial Consolidated Revenue Fund. If a campaign with a surplus balance is entitled to a subsidy payment under Section 312, the Chief Electoral Officer deducts the surplus balance from the subsidy payable and remits 4 the surplus amount directly to the candidate’s affiliated party.