Dan Fumano: ABC Vancouver returns $116,000 in prohibited donations from 2022 election
ABC's financial agent said the party believed they had followed the campaign finance rules when they endorsed four formerly independent candidates and merged bank accounts. This turned out not be the case, and the party has refunded the prohibited cash.
(Excerpt)
ABC Vancouver has returned $116,000 in prohibited donations accepted before the 2022 election that the party dominate in races for mayor, city council, school board and park board.
On Dec. 20, ABC filed an amended 2022 election financial disclosure with Elections BC. Unlike the party’s original disclosure filed almost a year earlier, the new version includes three pages listing “prohibited campaign contributions and loans.”
But ABC’s political rivals say this is not a good look for the party and its leader, Mayor Ken Sim, FCPA, FCA. Sim, an accountant and businessman with no experience in government, ran for office on a platform of financial expertise. Some are also calling for further investigation and a review of campaign finance rules.
ABC has not been fined or penalized for the prohibited contributions, but Elections B.C. is reviewing ABC Vancouver’s amended report, Elections B.C. spokesperson Melanie Hull said Thursday.
Sal Robinson, a director with political TEAM for a Livable Vancouver, reviewed various Vancouver parties’ filings last year and identified what appeared to be discrepancies in ABC’s donations.
TEAM notified Elections B.C. in July 2023, Robinson said, and sent more information in October, with a spreadsheet estimating ABC had accepted as much as $119,000 in apparently offside donations.
This does not reflect well on a party that wants to run a $2 billion-a-year operation like the City of Vancouver, said TEAM president Cleta Brown, especially considering that a single TEAM member volunteering their time identified the violations.
“I accept that mistakes do happen. And a handful of mistakes wouldn’t be worth any concern. But this is large-scale, amongst known people,” Brown said. “These are people they know, people they solicited. This isn’t money coming in randomly in the mail from strangers. … They have to do better than say: ‘It’s complicated.’ That’s not good enough.”
David Pasin, a former NPA board member and 2022 park board candidate, said: “For a party that prided itself on fiscal responsibility, their bookkeeping leaves a lot be desired.”
Pasin pointed out that Sim also ran into campaign finance issues during his first run for office. After Sim’s 2018 mayoral run with the NPA, Elections B.C. found the candidate had made two prohibited loans before the election, of $12,000 and $25,000, from his personal bank account to the campaign account.
Green Party of Vancouver Coun. Pete Fry called ABC’s amended disclosure “disappointing, but not entirely surprising.”
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