Political Financing Handbook for Third Parties, Financial Agents and Auditors (EC 20227) – August 2019

Printable PDF version

Table of Contents

• About This Document
  • Introduction to the handbook
  • Contact information
  • What's new in this release?
• 1. Reference Tables and Timelines
  • Registration requirements
    • Pre–election period registration requirements
    • Election period registration requirements
  • Role and appointment process–financial agent
  • Role and appointment process–auditor
  • Interim reporting requirements for a fixed–date general election
  • Interim reporting requirements for a general election held other than on a fixed date
  • Third party interim reporting scenarios
• 2. Definitions and Registration
  • What is a third party?
  • What are regulated activities?
  • Registration requirements and process
    • Registry of Third Parties
    • Prohibition on foreign third parties
• 3. Financial Administration Overview
  • Resources used for regulated activities
    • Use of own funds
    • Loans
    • Contributions
    • Volunteer labour
  • Administering expenses for regulated activities
    • Separate bank account for regulated activities
    • What is a regulated expense?
    • Who can authorize expenses?
    • Non-monetary contributions are also expenses
• 4. Pre-election Period of a Fixed-Date Election—Regulated Activities
  • Expenses limit for the pre-election period
  • Prohibitions on exceeding or circumventing the limit
  • Partisan activities and expenses in the pre-election period
  • Partisan advertising and expenses in the pre-election period
  • Election surveys and expenses in the pre-election period
• 5. Election Period–Regulated Activities
  • Expenses limit for an election period
  • When expenses are not cancellable
  • Partisan activities and expenses in the election period
  • Election advertising and expenses in the election period
  • Election surveys and expenses in the election period
• 6. Identifying and Allocating Regulated Expenses
  • Identifying expenses for regulated activities
  • How to allocate overhead expenses when a third party uses its own resources
  • How to allocate expenses for websites and web content
  • Allocating expenses between the pre-election and election period
  • Allocating expenses during by-elections
• 7. Interacting with Other Regulated Entities
  • What is collusion?
  • Specific prohibitions on colluding with political entities and associated persons
  • Risk that coordinated activities will result in a non-monetary contribution
• 8. Reporting
  • Reporting obligations for a fixed-date general election
  • Reporting obligations for a general election held other than on a fixed date
  • Reporting obligations for a by-election
  • Supporting documents
  • Corrections
  • Requesting a filing deadline extension
  • Submitting reports to Elections Canada

• Next