Third Party Advertiser contributions and expenses

The Local Authorities Election Act (LAEA) Part 8 and The City of Calgary Election Bylaw 35M2018 sets out rules for election advertising contributions and expenses of Third Party Advertisers (TPAs).

TPAs must register with Elections Calgary when it has accepted or plans to accept election advertising contributions of $1,000 or more.

Election advertising contributions can only be accepted from eligible contributors.

Ineligible contributors include:

• An individual who is not ordinarily a resident in Alberta.
• A trade union or employee organization that is not an Alberta trade union or Alberta employee organization.
• A prohibited corporation (as defined in the Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act Section 1(1)(l)).
• A group where any member is one of the above.
• A registered charity.

Election advertising contributions must be deposited into the TPAs advertising account.

A TPA must issue a receipt for every election advertising contribution. As set out in The City of Calgary Election Bylaw 35M2018, each receipt must include the following information:

• date of contribution;
• name of contributor;
• address of contributor; and
• amount contributed.

A contributor (i.e. individual, corporation, trade union or employee organization) may contribute to more than one TPA. However, their contribution(s) may not exceed $30,000 in total. For example, an individual may contribute $10,000 to three different TPAs. Their total contributions to TPAs is $30,000.

If any real property, goods or services are provided to the TPA for a price that is less than the market value (or provided for free), the amount by which the value exceeds the price is considered an advertising contribution. 

A contribution of $50 or less is not considered an election advertising contribution but the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the TPA must record the aggregate amount as part of the disclosure.

Anonymous contributions in excess of $50 must be returned to the contributor if their identity can be established. If their identify cannot be established, the contributions must be paid to the local jurisdiction (The City of Calgary). 

TPAs must register with Elections Calgary when it has incurred or plans to incur election advertising expenses of $1,000 or more.

All election advertising expense must be paid from the TPAs advertising account.

Every TPA must appoint a Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and all expenses must be authorized by the CFO or their delegate.

All election advertising expenses must be recorded in the advertising return.

When a fund-raising event ticket is $50 or less, up to half of the ticket value can be allowed for expenses. When the event ticket is between $50 and $100, $25 is allowed for expenses. When the event ticket is more than $100, 25% of the amount is allowed for expenses.