VANCOUVER, BC - The Green Party of Vancouver welcomes changes announced today by the Minister of Municipal Affairs to the Local Elections Campaign Financing Act (LECFA).

For years the Green Party of Vancouver has been calling for changes to the LECFA. As part of our policies, the Green Party of Vancouver applies the LECFA campaign contribution restrictions to our operating bank account, and posts annual disclosures on our website.

“This is great news for those of us who have been fighting for local election finance and system reform, and even better news for local democracy” says Councillor Pete Fry, whose motion on local electoral and finance reform passed last February. Last year Fry introduced a motion calling for the province to act on local political finance reform, which passed unanimously.

“The minister’s office has been thoughtful in addressing some of the concerns that we’ve been calling for not only at Vancouver City Council but across the province all the way to the UBCM, as part of ongoing work to reform local elections and campaign finance.”

This is an important first step to exposing some of the ‘dark money’ that makes its way into politics. These are the financial contributions that the public never hear about but influence the outcomes of elections and undermine public trust in our political systems.”

“Next step will be getting some more reforms to address the growing concerns around sophisticated digital communications and data analytics. This is a subject I’ll be advocating at UBCM this year.”

As part of Councillor Fry’s motion in February a resolution will be submitted to the Union of BC Municipalities requesting the Government of British Columbia expand the definition of advertising to cover digital political campaigns and tools.

-30-

Background

Failure and Reform: BC’s Local Elections Campaign Financing Act, September 18th, 2018

Green Party of Vancouver announces new donation policy, working to get dark money out of local politics, Dec 30, 2019

Fry’s motion calling for local political finance reform passes unanimously, Feb 11, 2020

Green Party of Vancouver celebrates passing of key electoral and campaign finance reform motion, February 11, 2021

Legislation strengthens transparency, modernizes local election financing, March 3, 2021