Horgan defends backtrack on subsidies for political parties
Posted September 19, 2017 3:05 pm.
Last Updated September 19, 2017 3:06 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VICTORIA (NEWS 1130) – Premier John Horgan is defending his government’s decision to include a temporary taxpayer-funded allowance in new campaign finance legislation.
Horgan is being accused of a breaking a promise, after he said during the May election that a committee would look at the funding issue.
But just days into the new legislative session, Horgan announced a per-vote subsidy for each political party, and a reimbursement of expenses that will amount to about $30 million over the next five years.
“I’m owning up to what I said before the campaign. I don’t want you to think that I’m running away from this, because I’m not, but it is not what you’re making it out to be. This is a transition fund and will be gone at the end of this mandate,” Horgan says.
He says this a five-year window for financing parties will help them in the transition to get big money out of politics.