Report says reviving political subsidies costs $44M per year, Liberals shut door
OTTAWA — Resurrecting the per-vote subsidy for federal political parties would cost the public treasury about $44 million annually over the next four years, a new report says — an expense the Liberal government said Tuesday it has no plans to incur.
A new report from the parliamentary budget officer calculates the potential cost of reintroducing the subsidy, which was introduced in 2004 by the Liberals when corporate donations were banned. By 2015, however, the Conservatives had phased out the subsidies.
The report follows a private member’s bill introduced last fall by Bloc Quebecois MP Michel Boudrias that, if passed, would restore public funding for registered political parties in the form of a quarterly allowance of 44 cents per vote cast in the most recent general election.
The bill also proposes lowering the annual individual donation limit to political parties to $525 from the current maximum of $1,575.