• Taxpayers could shell out more than $9 million in cash to political parties and politicians in next election

CALGARY, AB: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is calling on Alberta MLAs to reject the proposed taxpayer subsidy to political parties.

Today in committee, NDP MLA Rod Loyola proposed a motion for taxpayers to rebate 50 per cent of campaign expenses for political parties and candidates receiving 10 per cent (or more) of votes cast.

“With a $14 billion deficit, it’s incredible that the Alberta government would prioritize giving taxpayer money to political parties,” said CTF Alberta Director Paige MacPherson. “Alberta taxpayers should not be expected to pay for shrill partisan attack ads and annoying junk mail.”

Using numbers from the 2015 Alberta general election, and averaging the spending from the ridings of Calgary-McCall, Edmonton-Ellerslie and Lacombe-Ponoka, the CTF estimates that if this subsidy were in place, it would have cost taxpayers a total of $9,042,861.30 for the last election.

In Edmonton-Ellerslie, NDP MLA Rod Loyola, who introduced the motion, would have received a taxpayer kickback of $11,095.69. PC candidate Harman Kandola would have received $59,595.13, and Wildrose candidate Jacqueline Lovely would have received $24,666.52.

“The NDP government was right to ban donations from government employee unions with forced membership dues because those union members have no choice,” said MacPherson. “Handing political parties money, forced out of the pockets of taxpayers, is wrong for the exact same reason.”

Political parties already offer generous tax credits for campaign donations. If an Albertan family donates $200 to a political party, they receive a tax credit of 75 per cent. If the same family donates $200 to a charity, they receive a combined provincial-federal tax credit of only 25 per cent.

“Albertan political parties already have the luxury of donation tax credits three times higher than charities have,” said MacPherson. “The government’s focus should not be on stuffing parties’ coffers with over $9 million taxpayer dollars for a partisan election campaign.”

In October 2015, the CTF warned that Alberta’s NDP government might introduce a taxpayer subsidy to political parties.

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