With the 2024 municipal election fundraising disclosures recently posted, Public Interest Alberta is once again ringing alarm bells about the dramatic impact of big money in municipal politics.

“Albertans deserve an election that’s decided by the best ideas, not the biggest donors,” said Bradley Lafortune, Executive Director, Public Interest Alberta (PIA). “The limited information already being publicly disclosed already shows that the UCP's changes are pricing participation out of possibility. We're seeing enormous gifts from the largest donors and lobbyists, many of whom have been in front of city councillors asking for a handout. 

Downtown landlords and real estate interests or suburban developers looking for unfettered access to farmland don't need more access to backrooms. Many of the donors giving thousands of dollars represent or do business to some of the largest corporations in our city."

For context, in the 2021 Municipal election, Mayor Sohi last election raised $684,811. Based on the 2024 disclosures, one candidate for Mayor has already raised $458,244.22, in 2024 alone, over 66% of Sohi's total.

"Once again, PIA calls on the Minister to reduce spending and donation limits, and require transparency from Political Action Committees (PACs) prior to the October municipal election," said Hans Smits, Professor Emeritus from the University of Calgary and Chair of the PIA Democracy Task Force. "For multiple elections, Public Interest Alberta has objected to corporate and union donations in politics, and called for spending limits and increased disclosure to mitigate the interests of big money."

"If the UCP will not correct the rules before the puck drops, the least we can do is alert Albertans that they need to be demanding answers from candidates which big corporations, developers, or big money donors they work for when they visit our doorsteps." said Lafortune. "These disclosure periods are way too long, and need to be more frequent so we can examine in real time their votes against their donations. At minimum these disclosures should be on a quarterly basis, so we can know whether votes are being driven by their fundraising interests or their fiduciary duty to Edmontonians."

"Despite Candidate disclosures, Edmontonians still don’t know who’s bankrolling the advertising of PACS, such as the pro-conservative Edmonton Forward," said Lafortune. "This lack of transparency is simply not acceptable in our democracy."