Prince George, B.C. – The municipal election is still four months away, but Elections BC is already receiving  inquiries from  those who plan to run  for office.

Under the same new legislation which extends the local government and school trustee terms to four years, Elections BC has been given the responsibility of overseeing the campaign financing and third party advertising rules for local elections.  This is the first time elections BC  has been responsible for the financing and advertising rules.  Local jurisdictions will still be responsible for accepting nomination forms and  all other aspects of the actual vote.

Don Main , Communications Manager  for Elections BC  says  the calls for information have started “We’ve had some campaign organizers contact us.  There’s a bulletin that’s gone out as ‘campaign organizers’ is a role that is ending.  Campaign  organizers  are people who spend money on advertising to promote a candidate or party.  They no longer have a role in the upcoming elections, (now called third party sponsors)  but  if they had a campaign bank account as of March 27, 2014, they’re still required  to file financial disclosure statements which,  from all of the participants, are due 90 days after the November 15th local elections.”  That means all documents must be filed by Friday February 13th, 2015.

He says ElectionsBC has worked with the Local Government  Association and the Union of BC Municipalities to develop information materials “You’re going to see, now through  to the elections,  more information coming out  We will be putting out an ad for all the participants in September before the  start of the campaign period which starts 6 weeks before the election.”

Main says the forms are  still in the  development stage as the legislation  was only  finalized at the end of May. “We are in the process of finalizing our forms and guides for all of those ‘players’ in local government elections.  It is a new role for Elections BC.”

Main says there could be well over 3,000 disclosure statements from candidates throughout the province to review once that February 13th deadline rolls around. Once the reports  have been reviewed, they will be posted  on the ElectionsBC website.