OTTAWA — The Ontario Court of Appeal has overturned a lower court ruling that gave the federal Conservatives a victory in a dispute with Elections Canada over campaign financing.
The party immediately vowed to appeal the unanimous ruling to the Supreme Court of Canada.
The dispute revolves around the Conservative party's handling of GST rebates from the Canada Revenue Agency on supplies and services it purchased during the 2004 and 2006 elections.
The party, which qualifies for GST rebates because it is a non-profit entity, sought to change its spending reports for those two elections. It wanted Elections Canada to take the almost $600,000 in rebates and reduce its expenses by that amount.
When Elections Canada rejected the idea, the Tories took the agency to court.
The lower court ruled last January in favour of the party — even though it agreed the effect would be to raise the party's election-spending limits.
The three-member Ontario Court of Appeal ruled the lower court's ruling ran contrary to the intent of the Canada Elections Act to provide a "level playing field" to all political parties wanting to have their messages heard.
Elections Canada had argued that adopting the Conservative accounting method would have the effect of unevenly raising limits on parties' campaign spending.
The agency said the appeal court's ruling "confirms" its interpretation of the federal elections law.
"The decision preserves the integrity of the political-financing regime, which ensures fairness in the electoral system by establishing a level playing field among electoral competitors," Elections Canada spokeswoman Diane Benson said in a statement.
A Conservative party spokesman, however, denounced the ruling as "an outrage to Canadian taxpayers."
The latest legal ruling effectively authorizes the practice of political parties "double-dipping" at the expense of Canadian taxpayers, said Fred DeLorey.
"The entire rebate that the Conservative party has received is being held in trust, so we don't have the use of it and we look forward to returning this money to the taxpayers once our further appeal is determined," he said in an email.
The Conservative party and Elections Canada are also embroiled in two other ongoing court actions.
The Tories filed a dispute last week in Quebec Superior Court that challenges the agency's position that the party did not properly report campaign expenses in 2006 for offices in Montreal and Quebec.
The two groups also are engaged in an court battle over Election Canada's contention that the Conservative party improperly reported national advertising expenses for the 2006 campaign. The agency refused to recognize advertising expenses claimed by 67 Conservative candidates on the grounds they were actually incurred by the party, meaning they should've been filed under its national campaign expense report.
Elections Canada alleges the Conservatives engaged in a so-called "in-and-out" scheme, directing money to local candidates who then transferred the funds back to the party to be spent on more national advertising.
Read more: http://www.canada.com/news/Tories+fight+court+ruling+election+financing/4010800/story.html#ixzz18ogRfz9f
