The Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development (Hon. Coralee Oakes) in the BC Legislature on March 26th introduced Bills 20 + 21 (Local Elections Campaign Financing Act & Local Elections Statutes Amendment Act, 2014 respectively)
Bills 20 and 21 received final adoption in the BC Legislature yesterday afternoon.
The Opposition BC NDP and Delta-South Ind. MLA Vicki Huntington both put forward amendments pertaining to Campaign Financing/Donations to these two Bills however the governing BC Liberals' used their majority to defeat these amendments. The amendments in question would have banned corporate and union and other organization contributions to a candidate and allowed local governments to pass bylaws to regulate campaign donation limits. Minister Oakes says that the amendments that the Ind MLA for Delta-South & the BC NDP brought forward to Bills 20/21 will be dealt with in future legislation pertaining to local government campaign finance law, expected in 2017 or thereafter
It is expected that Bills 20/21 will receive Royal Assent which should occur at the end of the current session of the BC Legislature, which is expected to conclude by May 29th
In the meantime - local governments will be reviewing their election bylaws going forward to ensure that they comply with the new local government law amendments now passed. The deadline for any changes to local election bylaws is this August...
~SF
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