The Government of Alberta has released a new set of regulations relating to Bill 20, which establish rules for local political parties and set expense limits for local election campaigns across the province
Bill 20, the Municipal Affairs Statutes Amendment Act, made changes to both the Local Authorities Election Act (LAEA) and the Municipal Government Act (MGA). Bill 20’s changes to the LAEA include permitting the establishment of local political parties, creating a framework for campaign expense limits, expanding the use of special ballots in local elections, prohibiting the use of automated voting equipment, clarifying the rules and processes for scrutineers, and allowing municipalities to require criminal record checks for local candidates.
On October 18, 2024, the Minister of Municipal Affairs announced two new regulations designed to implement some LAEA changes:
Local Political Parties and Slates Regulation
This regulation allows local political parties and slates to register and be listed on municipal election ballots in Edmonton and Calgary for the October 2025 election. The regulation for local political parties and slates provides rules for their registration, operation and financial administration, similar to existing rules that govern local candidates and provincial political parties. Local political parties and slates will not be permitted to have formal affiliation with a provincial or federal political party, may not have a name or acronym that resembles a provincial or federal political party.
Expense Limit Regulation
The regulation creates expense limits for local candidates and third-party advertisers across Alberta, while introducing similar limits for local political parties in Edmonton and Calgary. The regulations specify expense limits during both the year of the election as well as non-election years. These new limits tie campaign expense limits to municipal populations and automatically adjust with changes in population over time.
Initial RMA Analysis
Earlier in 2024, the RMA provided the Government of Alberta with input related to the implementation of municipal political parties and expense limits. The RMA has undertaken an initial review of the regulations to compare them to the RMA’s initial input.
It should be emphasized that this initial analysis is based on a preliminary review of the regulations, which were released just hours before this bulletin was published. The RMA will amend or update this analysis as details of the regulation are better understood.
Local Political Parties
The RMA’s priority position related to the introduction of local political parties was that candidates should not gain a financial advantage in the form of additional monetary resources or higher expenses or campaign contribution limits as a result of joining a party. The RMA also emphasized the importance of attributing all party-related campaign expenses to specific candidates, both to ensure transparency and to maintain a level financial playing field between party affiliated and non-party affiliated candidates.
Unfortunately, neither priority appears to be reflected in the regulation, which allows party-affiliated candidates to incur expenses to a limit equal to non-party affiliated candidates, while also allowing parties to collect campaign funds on behalf of candidates. Although the regulation does link the amount of campaign funds a party may collect to the number of party affiliated candidates running in a municipality, it does not require those collected funds to be distributed evenly among candidates. This may allow parties to run many candidates to increase their overall campaign fund collection limit, and use the funds collected on a smaller number of “star” or high priority candidates.
Expense Limits
The RMA’s main focus in relation to expense limits is that they not be tied strictly to population as the costs of campaigning in rural communities are driven by unique factors linked to the distance between residences.
Additionally, as mentioned above, the RMA is concerned that candidates and parties have separate, and apparently cumulative expense limits, as this creates and un-level financial playing field among candidates.
Next Steps
The legislation and corresponding regulations are set to come into force on October 31, 2024.
Jared Shaigec
Policy Advisor
825.319.2312
jared@RMAlberta.com
Wyatt Skovron
General Manager of Policy & Advocacy
780.955.4096
wyatt@RMAlberta.com