Between May 2007 and last fall when the Conservative Party pleaded guilty to Elections Act charges, Elections Canada and the director of public prosecutions spent far more for lawyers, forensic accountants and investigators than the $52,000 the party paid in fines for violating its spending limits in the 2006 campaign.
The new figures, released under the Access to Information Act, come as the electoral watchdog undertakes an even broader series of investigations into complaints from voters about phone calls received during last year’s federal election in about 200 ridings across the country.
Throughout the in-and-out case, the Conservatives maintained they had done nothing wrong in conducting a series of wire transfers to shuffle $1.3 million in advertising costs incurred by the party through campaign accounts of 67 local candidates.
Elections Canada accused the party of using the transfers to dodge its $18.3 million spending cap by having the candidates claim the costs for regional radio and TV ad campaigns against their own, separate expense limits.
The Tories dismissed the matter as difference of opinion over accounting — the same language they are now using to rebut opposition outrage over the undisclosed costs of purchasing F-35 fighter jets.
An unspecified chunk of Elections Canada’s expenses were incurred defending a Federal Court challenge launched by the Conservatives after Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand ruled that the candidates were not entitled to claim the costs.
The party won a victory at the trial division but lost on appeal at a higher court. It abandoned an appeal to the Supreme Court shortly after the first media reports of the robocall scandals in the riding of Guelph in February.
A expense summary shows that the Commissioner of Canada Elections, who enforces the elections law, spent $1.5 million on the in-and-out case while the director of public prosecutions, who laid the charges, paid out another $759,000.
Among the expenses incurred by Elections Canada were $259,000 for forensic accounting firm RSM Richter and $243,000 to Commonwealth Legal for electronic document management and an unstated cost for investigators hired on contract.
The costs released by Elections Canada do not include the time or expenses incurred by staff at the agency or at the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Asked if the Conservatives would compensate the government for the full costs, party spokesman Fred DeLorey said, “The fines were paid in full. Neither the prosecution nor the court sought any more.”
The final tally for the in-and-out case will likely come nowhere close to the expense of the ongoing voter suppression investigations. Last month, Mayrand told a parliamentary committee that the commissioner’s office has about 250 active investigations into some 800 complaints about automated and live calls received during the Election Campaign.
Mayrand told MPs on the Procedure and House Affairs committee that they should consider increasing the penalties for Elections Act violations because they are “disproportionately light,” providing fines of just $2,000 to $5,000 for some serious violations.
Another document released through the open-records law sheds new light on the Elections Canada raid on Conservative Party headquarters in April 2008. A document sent to the RCMP’s integrated technical crime unit, which was helping with computer forensic work, lists the search terms used to scour the seven hard drives seized in the raid.
The search terms included phrases like “target seat list” and “riding breakdown” but also cryptic references such as “heavy up,” “Project Sunshine” and “Project 89” — possibly a reference to the number of ridings targeted in the scheme.
The records show that seven RCMP officers from the “A” Division drug squad were seconded to assist Elections Canada investigators with the raid on party offices on Albert Street.
Under the same memo of understanding with the RCMP, the commissioner is reportedly drawing on the Mounties’ help with the robocalls case. The agency is also bringing on additional staff to help with the huge influx in complaints since the robocalls story first broke.
In February 2011, the director of public prosecutions filed Elections Act charges against the party and four Conservative officials, including Senators Irving Gerstein and Doug Finley.
The charges against the four officials were dropped in November when the Conservatives reached an agreement with federal prosecutors. The party and its fundraising arm pleaded guilty and agreed to pay the maximum fine of $52,000.
The Conservatives called the plea agreement a “big victory” and noted no individuals were found to have done anything wrong.
After dropping its Supreme Court challenge last month, the party gave back $230,000 in reimbursements that had been wrongly paid out to its candidates before Elections Canada caught on to the illegal scheme. Under the Elections Act, candidates can claim refunds of 60 per cent of their eligible campaign expenses.
Original Article
Source: ottawa citizen
Author: GLEN MCGREGOR AND STEPHEN MAHER
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