July 7, 2008

Greens Escape by a Day

It looks like the Green Party gets off the hook on any accusation that it violated the Election Act and should be deregistered because section 25 of the Interpretation Act provides that when a date for filing falls on a date an office is closed or on a holiday, the date is extended to the next business day. After paying a $100 fine for not filing by March 31st, for both of the last two years the Greens filed on the last possible day of the extension before they would otherwise be deregistered as a party, and not allowed to register for a year. In 2007 that meant they filed on July 3rd and in 2008 they filed on June 30th. For a political party that is the equivalent of playing Russian roulette. If either date had been missed for any reason, the Greens would not be allowed to run candidates or operate in any way as a political party. Is it responsible to put so much at risk? Whatever the Greens say about public policy, it looks like they are challenged to run a small political party, let alone anything bigger.

July 5, 2008

Deregister the Green Party

Elections BC lists 39 registered political parties, complete with contact information for each party. In alphabetical order they range from the "Advocational International Democratic Party of British Columbia" to "Your Political Party of BC". The list of strange names includes "The Platinum Party of Employers Who Think and Act to Increase Awareness" which reported 2007 income of $687, and the "Work Less Party of British Columbia" which reported 2007 income of $3,757. It looks like the Work Less folks worked harder in their fund raising than the Platinum employers.

No financial reports can be found on the Elections BC website for "The Herb Party", but 37 political parties all filed their 2007 Annual Financial Reports as required by the Elections Act. The Green Party filed two months late in violation of Section 207, and the previous year it just missed the deadline which requires a court order to prevent deregistration.

Sections 216 through 227 of the Act provide penalties for late filing. The name of the offending party is published in the Gazette, and a $100 fine is levied. The consequences become more severe if a political party files later than June 30th, in particular, unless relief is granted by a court, Section 223 of the Act requires the Chief Electoral Officer to deregister the organization that failed to file financial reports. Elections BC has no discretion in the matter.

According to the Elections BC website, for the calendar year 2007, the Green Party filed on June 30th, 2008, just in the nick of time, and for the calendar year 2006, they filed on July 3, 2007, three days too late unless a court granted permission.

It is always possible that a required report could be submitted to Elections BC on a Friday but the date noted as received is not until the following working day. June 29, 2007 was a Friday. Canada Day was on the weekend, making July 3, 2007 the first subsequent working day, but in the case of the Green Party's filing for calendar year 2006, the document is signed and dated July 3, 2007 by the Party's Financial Agent, which of course is inconsistent with it being submitted on the previous Friday.

I haven't been able to find any indication that a court granted relief as required by Section 225 of the Election Act. Some would say that it is only a matter of a day or two, but 37 political parties had no trouble filing without the three month extension that a $100 fine makes possible. The Act doesn't give Elections BC discretion with respect to waiving the time limit of June 30th; it is clear that a court order is necessary. I have asked Elections BC if the Green Party was assessed the required $100 fines, and whether it obtained the required court order. If not, why hasn't it been deregistered as required by the Act.