Another Saanich city election candidate was fined for violating campaign finance rules.
Saanich council candidate Vernon Lord was fined by Elections B.C. on Tuesday (November 15) after he was found to have sponsored an election ad without an authorized statement during the campaign.
On Sept. 24, Elections BC received a complaint about a lawn sign promoting Lord for Saanich Council that lacked a statement of authorization.
Lord told investigators he used only 20 lawn signs, all of which he reused on his previous campaign in 2018, according to Adam Barnes, director of investigations for Elections British Columbia.
Lord admitted he didn’t know if the signs had previously had authorization stickers that fell off during storage, or if they simply had no authorization statement in the first place.
Section 44(1) of the Local Election Financing Act requires a candidate sponsoring an election ad to identify the ad’s financial agent, indicate that it is authorized by the financial agent, and provide a BC phone number, email address, or BC mailing address , at which the financial agent can be contacted.
Barnes said Elections B.C. ultimately fined Lord $150 because the nature of the violation was not egregious and the signs could have a market value of about $500. The flags were fixed after omission. Lord has never been fined by Elections BC before.
Last week, former Saanich mayor Fred Haynes and Victoria City Council candidate Janice Williams were fined $150 and $100, respectively, by Elections B.C. for similar reasons.
Lord must pay the fine to B.C.’s Chief Elections Officer within 40 days. He received 3,822 votes in the 2022 Saanich council election.
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Saanich Constituency 2022