Civic Election Campaign Spending Must be More Transparent, Provincial Report Says

The Local Government Elections Task Force issued their report on May 28, 2010.

On p.1 of today's Vancouver Sun there is a report on the issue of civic election campaign spending. Interestingly, Wayne Wright is mentioned as an, "over spender".

Another interesting note in the article is this:

"Bennett added -- incorrectly -- that if a vote comes before council involving a major donor, councillors are legally obliged to recuse themselves. "Anybody who has received a very large donation from a developer, it seems to me, would have to absent themselves from a vote on that development," he said.

In fact, B.C. courts have ruled that councillors do not have to refrain from voting on issues involving campaign donors." - Still one would hope that in the interests of transparency they would.

It would be interesting to see if New Westminster's councilors, school trustees and mayor have recused themselves from situations where their large contributors (certain developers and unions) have been involved. Voice trustees brought this issue up with the school board and have recused themselves in situations where there may have been a real or perceived conflict of interest.