Ontario NDP accuses PCs of creating 'cash-for-access culture' ahead of fundraiser

Ontario's Minister of Transportation Prabmeet Sarkaria attend Question Period at the Ontario Legislature in Toronto, Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

Ontario's Opposition leader is accusing the government of creating a "cash-for-access culture" and is asking the province's integrity commissioner to look into an upcoming Progressive Conservative party fundraiser with the premier and transportation minister.

The fundraiser is billed as an evening with Doug Ford and Prabmeet Sarkaria, and tickets are selling for $1,000.

The Ontario Trucking Association has put out a "call to action" urging members to buy tickets to the "small, relatively exclusive" event and deliver a message to Sarkaria about cracking down on illicit operations.

"We need to turn this event into an OTA member trucking event to deliver one clear message: 'Our industry supports your government, and we need your government to bring order to our sector,'" chairman Mark Bylsma wrote.

"Participation should be viewed as an investment in our industry and for our own businesses...This is the only way to win this battle."

NDP Leader Marit Stiles said cabinet ministers should not be fundraising off of people who have business in their ministry.

"That’s pretty explicit," she said Thursday in the legislature. "The government has created a cash-for-access culture that is sending Ontarians a clear message that if they want to be heard, they need to pay up."

Stephen Laskowski, president and CEO of the trucking association, said in a statement that his organization did not speak to anyone in government about the event and put out the call to action on its own accord.

OTA's callout was first revealed by Global News, the same week it reported that the head of the Ontario PC Party fund sent an email giving cabinet ministers fundraising targets.

Stiles wants the integrity commissioner to look at whether the upcoming fundraiser or any actions taken in response to the PC fundraiser's email would put Ford, Sarkaria or other elected officials in a real or potential conflict of interest, or otherwise contravene the Lobbyists Registration Act, the Members’ Integrity Act, the Public Service of Ontario Act or parliamentary convention.

Attorney General Doug Downey said all political parties follow the same rules, and donation records are transparent so the public can scrutinize them.

"The Ontario regulations set a level playing field for all of us," he said in the legislature. "There are rules the parties have to follow. There are processes. Whether you’re in power, you’re in opposition or you aspire to be in this legislature, there is an ability to raise money with rules."

The rules were created by this government, Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner noted, relaxed from a regime the previous Liberal government had in place.

"The previous government brought in what I thought were good fundraising rules," he said after question period.

"They had lowered donation limits and eliminated cash-for-access fundraising. Unfortunately, the conservatives have brought that back, and the people of Ontario need to hold them accountable, because the Ford government is bringing big money back into politics, and that's bad for democracy and it's bad for good public policy."

The opposition criticisms of fundraising events like Ford and Sarkaria's hearkens back to a cash-for-access scandal under the then-Liberal government in 2016.

Kathleen Wynne's government came under fire over reports of cabinet ministers with fundraising targets as high as $500,000 a year, fundraising dinners with tickets going for thousands of dollars, and pricey fundraising events with direct stakeholders.

In response to the furor, the Liberals banned corporate and union donations, lowered the maximum donation amounts, and prohibited politicians from attending fundraisers.

In 2019, the Progressive Conservative government removed the ban on politicians attending fundraisers and raised maximum donations to parties, constituency associations and candidates to $1,600. That amount was later raised further and now stands at $3,375.

Liberal Stephen Blais said that amount is "probably too high," but otherwise suggested the rules as they stand are working.

"We had an extreme fundraising ban in the past — it didn't work," he said.

"If we want to have a vigorous debate when it's time for elections, that requires that political parties are well funded, to express themselves, and ensure that Ontarians can hear that message. That requires money, that requires fundraising."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 21, 2024.