The report on political financing in 2020 (Financement politique : bilan et perspectives 2020, available in French only) was tabled on March 31, 2021, at the Assemblée nationale. In matters of political financing and election expenses, Élections Québec plays an educational and control role. Therefore, this report sets out the results arising from these functions. It accounts for the actions we carried out in 2020 and provides an overview of the work we will perform in 2021.
We have been working in concert with the departments concerned to set up measures to ensure safe elections during the pandemic. This work was focused on municipal by-elections and school elections. Parallel to these exceptional tasks, we continued with our regular audit activities of the returns of election expenses and financial reports.
In this year of municipal general elections, we are making some recommendations to improve the Act respecting elections and referendums in municipalities (AERM) in terms of political financing. Our recommendations have the following main objectives:
- Maintain the principles of political financing, i.e., fairness and transparency;
- Facilitate the general application of the AERM provisions related to political financing and the control of election expenses;
- Simplify administrative procedures.
