‘Gross’ HRM campaign finance limit gives rich candidates an advantage: mayor

HALIFAX, N.S. — Allowing candidates to self-finance their municipal campaigns up to $17,700 — with extra donations from their families — is disgusting, said Mayor Mike Savage.

“I can’t think of a word other than gross to describe that,” he said.

Staff brought forward a report on campaign financing and a suggested change to what candidate’s spouses can contribute to the executive standing committee on Monday morning.

In just over 10 months, HRM residents will head to the polls.

In a review of campaign financing laws, staff surveyed councillors on changes. As a result, one proposed change is that a spouse would be considered an independent donor. It means that instead of a spouse’s contribution being combined with the candidate’s, a spouse could contribute the maximum individual amount of $1,200 for a councillor campaign or $3,000 for mayor. That’s on top of what a candidate contributes.

Most councillors surveyed — 11 out of 16 — said they were fine with the self-finance limit for candidates set at $17,700.

“What we’re doing is saying it’s OK for somebody with money to start with a built-in advantage over everybody else,” Savage said.

“I just think it’s obscene that somebody with money can single-handedly finance half of what they’re allowed to and more that most people spend.”

Councillor candidates have a total spending limit of $35,300 and it’s $353,000 for mayoral candidates.

Coun. Waye Mason (Halifax South Downtown) moved to reduce the total amount a candidate can contribute to their campaign to $5,900 per election.

Self-financing needed for non-white male candidates

But candidates who don’t have the backing of a political party, who don’t have a “donor machine” need the ability to pay for campaigns themselves, argued Coun. Pam Lovelace (Hammonds Plains – St. Margarets).

Plus, candidates who are not white men, who don’t look like traditional politicians, aren’t receiving the same donations, she said.

“Some individuals in order to become elected they’re not receiving donations because they do not look like a typical candidate or a typical politician,” Lovelace said.

“In that case what we’re doing here is removing more of their ability to actually fund their campaign because they’re not able to get those votes due to systemic racism, for example, misogyny, sexism, ableism and so on.”

While $17,700 sounds like a lot, for independent candidates, it’s not much at all, she argued.

Savage responded that minority candidates are the least likely to be able to self-finance a campaign.

(In the U.S. and Canada) “it’s white men who are able to self-finance campaigns and get around all kinds of election laws. This is about fairness to me.”

The executive committee approved the amendment to reduce the self-financing limit to $5,900 as well as have staff review campaign financing limits while taking inflation into account. This will appear before Halifax regional council soon for a final vote.

Rebates for campaign spending

HRM’s women’s advisory committee, concerned about the number of women running in local politics who cite difficulties in paying for their campaigns, asked the executive committee to have staff investigate a rebate program.

Iain MacLean, municipal clerk, said it’s a complicated conversation. There’s only one city that does this — Toronto, where candidates produce receipts and it’s taxpayer-funded. If it were done here, it would require changes to provincial legislation, he said.

There are tax credits for provincial and federal donations but not for municipal elections.

Mason said council already decided before the last election in 2020 not to do this because of the tax burden.

While there’s no way it could be done by the 2024 election, Mason said he supported a staff report.

Coun. David Hendsbee (Preston – Chezzetcook – Eastern Shore) said he thinks there’s a creative way to do this like considering donations as gifts to the Crown for tax receipts.

The committee voted in favour of a staff report.