What is the Election Compliance Audit Committee?

The role of the Election Compliance Audit Committee (ECAC) is to:

• determine if the election campaign finance rules of the Municipal Elections Act, 1996 (‘the Act’) have been followed by candidates and third parties;
• begin proceedings against them if they are found to have broken campaign finance rules, and
• review reports submitted by the Clerk with respect to any campaign donor who appears to have contributed more than the allowable amount to a candidate or registered third party’s election campaign.

The ECAC only considers alleged violations of the Act pertaining to election campaign finances, and does not consider any other complaints of alleged candidate wrong-doing or contraventions of the Act.

The ECAC is completely independent from Council and is granted specific decision making powers under the Act. Decisions of the committee do not need to be approved by Council; however, they may be appealed to the Superior Court of Justice within 15 days after the Committee’s decision is made.