Allowances will fill fundraising gap for political parties in B.C.

VICTORIA – Political parties in British Columbia will receive an annual allowance over the next five years in an effort to help wean them off unlimited corporate, union and individual donations.

Attorney General David Eby introduced amended Election Act legislation Monday that would ban big money from politics, saying the May election will be the last under finance rules that earned B.C. a Wild West nickname.

The legislation says that starting in 2018, political parties will receive $2.50 for every vote they got in the last election and funding will drop by 25 cents each year until 2021.

That means both the Liberal and New Democrat parties would receive just over $8.1 million over five years, while the Green party would get $3.4 million.

Eby says the legislation limits individual donations to $1,200 a year, bans out-of-province donations and caps contributions to third-party advertisers.

Elections BC, the agency that monitors provincial elections, reported the Liberals raised $13.1 million in 2016, while the NDP took in $6.2 million and the Greens raised $757,268.