With Alberta’s 2025 municipal elections a year away, the question is not just who will win, but who will be calling the shots: voters, or institutional donors.
In May, Alberta passed Bill 20, the Municipal Affairs Statutes Amendment Act, which permits Alberta corporations and unions to donate to candidates for municipal elections and tightens the rules relating to third-party advertising.
The rules could have a big impact on the province’s more than 300 municipal elections, which take place every four years in October. Supporters argue the rules enhance transparency and accountability by making it clear who is funding political campaigns. Critics warn it opens the door for deep-pocketed corporations to have outsized influence over local politics.
“These are changes that no one asked for and no one wanted,” said Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, which represents more than 170,000 unionized workers in the province.
“It’s a step back for local democracy in Alberta.”
‘Fully transparent’
Alberta’s new campaign finance laws permit Albertans, companies and unions to contribute directly to mayoral and municipal office candidates. In so doing, they reverse rules introduced under the predecessor NDP government that had banned corporations and unions from donating directly to local candidates.
“Until 2015, when the NDP came in and banned corporate and union donations at the provincial level, Alberta was one of essentially two holdouts in Canada, along with Saskatchewan, that permitted corporate and union contributions at the provincial level,” says Lisa Young, a professor of political science at the University of Calgary.
However, Alberta’s new laws also tighten rules relating to third-party advertisers, which are individuals or corporations that advertise to promote or oppose municipal candidates. The rules cap the amount that a third-party advertiser can donate at $5,000 per municipality, down from a previous cap of $30,000. They also require third-party advertisers to disclose the donations they receive.
According to the ministry of Municipal Affairs, the previous third-party advertising rules enabled institutions to wield considerable indirect influence over local politics.
“While corporations and union donors were prohibited from donating directly to candidates in 2020, it is clear that they continued to be involved in Alberta’s municipal elections through third-party advertisers,” said Municipal Affairs Press Secretary Heather Jenkins in an e-mailed statement.
For example, Calgary’s Future, a political advocacy organization and registered third-party advertiser, received more than $1.7 million to spend on advertising in Calgary’s 2021 election, in which it backed successful mayoral candidate Jyoti Gondek. All of that money came from unions, according to Elections Calgary disclosures.
“It is important that candidates are fully transparent about where their campaign dollars are coming from,” said Jenkins.
Alberta’s new laws also permit municipal politicians to create and run as part of local political parties, whereas they were previously required to run as independents.
According to a 2023 survey by the Alberta government, 70 per cent of survey respondents opposed the inclusion of local political parties on electoral ballots. Respondents cited concerns about the change eroding a consensus-based model of local government and local representation.
‘False equivalency’
While unions and corporations are subject to the same contribution limits under the new law, critics reject the idea that business and labour will be operating on a level playing field.
“A lot of the commentary that we heard around this from the Premier and the Minister [of Municipal Affairs] talked about reducing the influence of unions,” said Young. “And so corporations are seen then as a counterbalance to the role of unions.”
McGowan, of the Alberta Federation of Labour, notes that Alberta’s businesses are both more numerous and better capitalized than Alberta’s unions.
“It’s a false equivalency that this is balanced just because both corporations and unions are allowed to donate,” he said. “There’s a big difference between the funds that corporations have compared to any union in this province.”
Young also predicts the new rules could ultimately empower property developers.
“Certainly if a councilor is getting most or all of the funds that they need to run in an election from the development sector through a collection of multi-thousand dollar contributions, then presumably they will be inclined toward voting in favour of things that developers are asking for,” she said.
In McGowan’s view, the new laws make it imperative for Alberta’s labour movement to adopt more vigorous strategies.
“Workers will be needed to counter the negative impact of corporate money,” said McGowan, who was also a candidate in the Alberta NDP’s most recent leadership race.
“And while workers may not be able to match the dollars, we can fight back with our activism [by] participating in campaigns, organizing protests or government relations. It definitely includes workers being candidates and winning elections themselves.”
