Library of Parliament Legislative Summary of Bill C-21, the Political Loans Accountability Act

The Library of Parliament has published a legislative summary of Bill C-21: An Act to amend the Canada Elections Act (accountability with respect to political loans):

"Bill C-21 amends the Canada Elections Act with regard to loans, guarantees and suretyships to registered parties, registered associations, election candidates, leadership contestants and nomination contestants (hereinafter collectively called 'political entities')."

"Bill C-21 is based, in part, on Recommendations of the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs Respecting Specific Issues of Political Financing, submitted in 2007 (...)"

"Bill C-21 builds on the 2007 Chief Electoral Officer’s report by proposing the following changes to the Canada Elections Act:

• All loans to political entities, including mandatory disclosure of terms, and the identity of all lenders and loan guarantors, must be transparent.
• Unions and corporations are prohibited from making loans to political parties, associations, and election candidates.
• The amount of loans and loan guarantees that individuals can make are limited within the framework of the permitted individual annual contribution.
• The ability to make loans beyond the annual contribution limit for individuals would be restricted to financial institutions and political entities, and could be provided at commercial rates of interest only.
• Tighter rules would be instituted for the treatment of unpaid loans to ensure that election candidates cannot walk away from those loans."
  

It is possible to follow the progress of the bill through Parliament on the LEGISinfo website.