The Municipal Election Compliance Audit Committee is mandated by the Municipal Elections Act (MEA). The Act requires that before October 1st in an election year, Council establish a compliance audit committee for the purposes of Section 88.33 of the Act concerning a possible contravention of the Act's election campaign finance provisions.
The MEA provides that an elector who is entitled to vote in an election and believes on reasonable grounds that a candidate or a registered third party advertiser has contravened a provision of the MEA relating to election campaign finances may apply for a compliance audit of the candidate’s or registered third party advertiser’s campaign finances, even if a financial statement has not been filed. The deadline to submit an application for a compliance audit of 2022 Municipal Election campaign finances was June 29, 2023.
Access Past Committee Agendas & Minutes.
Mandate
The mandate of the Municipal Election Compliance Audit Committee is to hear and determine all compliance audit applications filed in accordance with section 88.33 and 88.35 of the MEA.
Purpose
The Compliance Audit Committee is an investigative/adjudicative body created to enforce provincially enacted laws related to municipal election campaign funding.
The Committee's purpose is to consider compliance audit applications and decide whether it should be granted or rejected. If granted, the Committee would then proceed as follows:
- Appoint an auditor;
- Consider the auditor's report and decide whether legal proceedings should be commenced;
- Recover the costs of conducting the audit from the applicant if there was no apparent contravention or if there appears to be no reasonable grounds for having made the application;
The Committee also receives reports prepared by the City Clerk identifying each contributor who appears to have contravened any of the contribution limits that are reported on the financial statements for all Municipal Election candidates, and considers whether to commence a legal proceeding against a contributor.
Composition & Term
The Municipal Election Compliance Audit Committee is comprised of Three (3) citizen members who are appointed for a four-year term from October 1, 2022 to November 14, 2026.