Monday, January 16, 2006

OTTAWA - Today, Democracy Watch called on media outlets across the country to ask federal political party leaders whether they will disclose the identity of donors and amount of donations made to their party between from October to the end of December 2005 before election day, and the identity of lenders and amount of loans made and the current status of loans to their party.

Democracy Watch also called on the media to ask party leaders and candidates across the country to disclose donors and donations made to their own election campaigns, and whether they have taken any donations of money directly into their personal bank accounts or personal donations of property or services, donations which are currently unlimited and can be made in secret because of a loophole in federal law.  The federal Elections Act only limits and requires disclosure of election donations made to parties, riding associations, riding nomination and candidates’ election campaigns long after the election has occurred.

“Voters have a democratic right to know before they cast their vote who has bankrolled political parties and candidates, especially because unlimited secret donations to candidates are still allowed,” said Duff Conacher, Coordinator of Democracy Watch. “If the media do not push party leaders and candidates to disclose all their donors before election day, they will help the leaders and candidates deny voters their right to know this key information.”

Since January 1, 2005, the Elections Act has required that parties disclose donors every three months, but donors from October to December 2005 have not yet been made public.  Under the Act, loans to the parties, and donations to riding associations, are only required to be disclosed by June 30th of each year (for the previous year) so the status of past and current loans, and the identity of donors who made donations in 2005 that were transferred to the parties from ridings are still secret.

According to data submitted to Elections Canada, through 2004 the federal Liberals took out 13 loans totalling almost $34.82 million, including:

• $14.62 million from National Bank (3 loans);
• $11.63 million from Royal Bank (2 loans);
• $3.87 million from CIBC (3 loans);
• $3.51 million from Bank of Nova Scotia (2 loans);
• $713,685 from TD Bank (2 loans), and;
• $350,000 from Bank of Montreal (1 loan).

Also according to Elections Canada data, the federal Liberals received donations totalling $4.72 million in 2004, along with another $498,000 transferred from riding associations, for a total of $5.22 million.  From January through September 2005, the Liberals received donations totalling $4.19 million, along with $671,197 from riding associations and $296,024 from candidates, for a total of $5.16 million.

Under the new public financing system for federal political parties through which the parties each receive $1.75 annually per vote received in the previous election, the Liberals received $9.1 million in 2004 (along with election rebates also based on the 2004 election results) and about $9.1 million in 2005.

The federal NDP took out five loans from Citizens Bank totalling $9.5 million in 2004 (along with a $300,000 loan from the Canadian Labour Congress), and raised $5.19 million in 2004 and $2.42 million in 2005 up to the end of October.  The NDP received about $3 million in public financing based on votes received in 2004, and $3.9 million in 2005.

And the Bloc Québecois took out 58 loans from Desjardins totalling $5.67 million in 2004, but only raised $892,117 in 2004 and $303,000 in 2005 up to the end of October.  The Bloc received about $2.5 million in public financing based on votes received in 2004, and $3 million in 2005.

The Green Party of Canada took 13 loans from individuals totalling $510,000 in 2004, and raised $351,000 in 2004, and $220,397 in 2005 up to the end of October.  The Greens received about $500,000 in public financing based on votes received in 2004, and about $1 million in 2005.

The federal Conservatives had no loans in 2004.