Four Vancouver civic political parties are calling on Elections BC to conclude its investigation of Mayor Ken Sim’s ABC Vancouver party concerning potential contraventions of campaign finance rules during the 2022 general election.
The Green Party of Vancouver, OneCity Vancouver, TEAM for a Livable Vancouver and the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) said Tuesday that it’s imperative the investigation be concluded and results shared before the April 5 byelection.
“The four opposition parties all strictly observed B.C. elections campaign finance rules during the 2022 municipal election, and the expectation is that Sim’s ABC [party] be held at the same standard,” Tanya Webking, co-chair of COPE, told reporters at a news conference Tuesday on the plaza at city hall.
Elections BC announced in April 2024 that ABC Vancouver was among 12 civic parties in Vancouver, Burnaby, Langley, Surrey and Kelowna being investigated for potential contraventions of the Local Elections Campaign Financing Act (LECFA).
The four rival parties to Sim’s party have focused their concerns on ABC Vancouver since it won a majority in the October 2022 election and holds eight of the 11 council seats. Two seats are now up for grabs in the April 5 byelection because OneCity’s Christine Boyle and the Greens’ Adriane Carr both resigned recently.
Boyle left because she got elected as the NDP MLA for Vancouver-Little Mountain and has since been appointed Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation. Carr resigned over concerns related to Sim’s governing style and wanting to spend more time with family.
Elections BC didn’t specify what each of the 12 parties was being investigated for, but said they related to one or more of the following potential contraventions:
• accepting prohibited contributions.
• failing to deal with prohibited contributions in accordance with LECFA.
• sponsoring election advertising without an authorization statement.
Elections BC said in an emailed statement Wednesday that “we are working to conclude these investigations as soon as possible. We are unable to provide further details while these investigations are ongoing, but will provide more information once they conclude.”
Six amended disclosure statements
The Elections BC website shows ABC’s initial disclosure statement filed Jan. 13, 2023 claimed total contributions were $1,008,687. The party subsequently filed six amended disclosure statements.
The most recent filing in December 2024 indicated contributions totalled $998,122.64.
That document also included a section of “prohibited contributions and loans,” which named a long list of contributors that ABC has since paid back.
The total money returned was $49.338.86, according to the document. Other amended disclosure statements also include a list of returned donations, although it isn’t clear how much overlap there is with the most recent filing in December 2024.
In ABC’s second amended statement in December 2023, for example, the total amount returned — more than $115,000 — includes some names and contribution amounts that also appear in the December 2024 document.
'Will continue to comply'
BIV contacted ABC Vancouver via email to clarify how much money in total the party has returned, but didn’t get an answer.
Party president Stephen Molnar said in a statement: “ABC is fully committed to upholding the highest standard of integrity to ensure we are in compliance with campaign financing laws. We have and will continue to comply with any requests from Elections BC.”
Green Party Coun. Pete Fry echoed Webking’s concerns about the public having yet to learn the result of the Elections BC investigation into ABC.
“It's been two years and over six disclosure statements that ABC have filed,” Fry said. “Yet there's yet to be any disciplinary action or even a conclusion of the investigation by Elections BC. These are serious financial irregularities, and we expect that the rules apply to all of us equally.”
The Greens, COPE, OneCity and TEAM all plan to run candidates in the April 5 byelection. ABC Vancouver will also run two candidates.
If potential contraventions of LECFA are substantiated by Elections BC, the ABC party will be subject to enforcement action, which can include administrative monetary penalties.
Elections BC has issued monetary penalties to the NPA and the Langley Association.
Progress Vancouver
In July 2023, Elections BC announced that Progress Vancouver — led by mayoral candidate Mark Marissen in the 2022 campaign — was deregistered as an elector organization for failing to meet campaign financing disclosure requirements.
As a result, candidates endorsed by Progress Vancouver are disqualified from running in local elections until after the 2026 election. Progress Vancouver and six of their eight endorsed candidates did not submit the required reports by deadline.
Progress Vancouver and its endorsed candidates did file reports by the late filing deadline of Feb. 13, 2023. However, the report filed by Progress Vancouver did not meet LECFA’s requirements, according to Elections BC.
The report did not provide information about the organization’s campaign finances, including campaign contribution details and campaign-period expenses attributed to specific candidates.
The report also disclosed several “apparent violations” of campaign financing rules, including accepting:
• a non-permissible loan of $50,000.
• contributions without reporting the required information (missing or incomplete contributor names and addresses).
• prohibited campaign contributions from outside British Columbia.
• contributions more than the annual campaign contribution limit.
Campaign limits
Some facts about B.C.’s election rules:
• In local elections, only someone who is a resident of British Columbia and a Canadian citizen or permanent resident can make a campaign contribution.
• Organizations such as unions and corporations are prohibited from making campaign contributions.
• Campaign contributions from eligible individuals are limited annually. In 2022, the annual contribution limit was $1,250 per campaign.
• Contribution limits apply to an elector organization and its endorsed candidates. For example, in 2022, a contributor could not give more than $1,250 in total to an elector organization and all of its endorsed candidates.
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