Election spending audits requested for Horizon Ottawa, city council candidate
CTV
The city of Ottawa's election compliance committee has granted audit applications in two of three cases with regard to campaign spending in the 2022 municipal election.
The city of Ottawa's election compliance committee has granted audit applications in two of three cases with regard to campaign spending in the 2022 municipal election.
The committee is an independent, statutory body responsible for reviewing and making decisions on applications for the municipal election campaign finance compliance audits. Following consideration of applications for a compliance audit, the committee may appoint an auditor to review campaign finances and decide whether to commence a legal proceeding.
The committee was asked to consider election compliance audit applications of the campaign finances for Coun. Shawn Menard, Ward 20 candidate Doug Thompson and third-party advertiser Horizon Ottawa. The same Ottawa resident filed the applications for all three candidates.
On Monday, the committee rejected the audit application for Menard, saying there was no reasonable ground to believe a contravention took place, but granted audit requests in the cases of Thompson and Horizon Ottawa.
Thompson ran unsuccessfully for the Ward 20 seat, coming in second behind incumbent George Darouze by a margin of 238 votes. Thompson was the previous councillor in that ward from 2001 to 2014.
The committee found, and Thompson admitted, that his financial statements regarding the cost of signs re-used from previous elections was inaccurate. Thompson put the cost of the signs at $100, which he called an accounting error.
Thompson offered to file further materials, but the committee rejected them because the filing deadline has passed.
