Political Financing Handbook for Third Parties, Financial Agents and Auditors – Draft – January 2024

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Table of Contents

• About This Document
  • Introduction to the handbook
  • Contact information
• 1. Reference Tables and Timelines
  • Definition of terms
    • What are the different election types, and why does it matter?
    • What is a third party?
    • What are regulated activities?
    • Which issue-based activities are regulated?
  • Important deadlines by election type
    • Important deadlines for a fixed-date general election
    • Important deadlines for a non-fixed-date general election
    • Important deadlines for a by-election
  • Registration timelines by election type
    • Registering in a pre-election period (fixed-date general election only)
    • Registering in an election period (all general elections and by-elections)
  • Interim reporting timelines by election type
    • Interim reporting for a fixed-date general election
    • Interim reporting for a non-fixed-date general election
• 2. Registering a Third Party
  • Requirement to register
  • Registration process
  • Role and appointment process—financial agent
  • Role and appointment process—auditor
  • Prohibition on foreign third parties
• 3. Financial Administration—Overview of Resources
  • Third party's own funds
  • Loans
  • Contributions
    • What is a contribution?
    • What is commercial value?
    • Who can contribute to a third party, and who can accept contributions?
    • Prohibition on using foreign funds
    • Contributor identification
    • Accepting contributions of cryptocurrency
  • Volunteer labour
• 4. Financial Administration—Overview of Expenses
  • Administering expenses
    • Basic rules and responsibilities
    • What are regulated expenses, and who can authorize them?
    • Non-monetary contributions are also expenses
  • Expenses limits for a pre-election period and election period
  • When expenses are not cancellable
  • Prohibitions on exceeding or circumventing the limit
• 5. Regulated Activities—Pre-election Period of a Fixed-Date Election
  • Partisan advertising and expenses in the pre-election period
    • What is partisan advertising?
    • What qualifies as partisan advertising on the Internet?
    • Partisan advertising expenses
    • Other rules: Taglines
  • Partisan activities and expenses in the pre-election period
    • What is a partisan activity?
    • Activities with members, employees or shareholders are included
    • Fundraising activities are excluded
    • Media activities and certain publications are excluded
    • Partisan activity expenses
    • Other rules: Mass text messaging
  • Election surveys and expenses in the pre-election period
    • What is an election survey?
    • Surveys of members, employees or shareholders are included
    • Election survey expenses
• 6. Regulated Activities—Election Period
  • Election advertising and expenses in the election period
    • What is election advertising?
    • What qualifies as election advertising on the Internet?
    • Election advertising expenses
    • Other rules: Tagline
    • Other rules: Blackout period
  • Partisan activities and expenses in the election period
    • What is a partisan activity?
    • Activities with members, employees or shareholders are included
    • Fundraising activities are excluded
    • Media activities and certain publications are excluded
    • Partisan activity expenses
    • Other rules: Telephone calls
    • Other rules: Mass text messaging
  • Election surveys and expenses in the election period
    • What is an election survey?
    • Surveys of members, employees or shareholders are included
    • Election survey expenses
    • Other rules: Publication of results based on recognized statistical methods
    • Other rules: Publication of results not based on recognized statistical methods
    • Other rules: Blackout period
    • Other rules: Telephone surveys
• 7. Identifying and Allocating Regulated Expenses
  • Identifying expenses for regulated activities
  • Allocating overhead expenses when a third party uses its own resources
  • Allocating expenses for websites and web content
  • Allocating expenses between the pre-election and election periods
  • Allocating expenses during by-elections
• 8. Interacting with Other Regulated Entities
  • What is collusion?
  • Specific prohibitions on colluding with political entities
  • Risk that coordinated activities will result in a non-monetary contribution
• 9. Reporting
  • Reporting obligations for a fixed-date general election
  • Reporting obligations for a non-fixed-date general election
  • Reporting obligations for a by-election
  • Supporting documents
  • Corrections
  • Requesting a filing deadline extension
  • Submitting reports to Elections Canada

• Next