TORONTO -- Premier Kathleen Wynne is defending a plan to ban all elected provincial politicians from fundraising, saying there's a chance any of them could be in government one day and have the influence of a cabinet minister.
The Liberals' surprise proposal came in the middle of hearings last week into election finance reform legislation. The opposition parties have been calling for an end to so-called cash-for-access events that saw cabinet ministers attend high-priced functions, sometimes with stakeholders.
Both the Progressive Conservatives and the NDP had proposed amendments to ban such fundraisers, but Wynne said they didn't go far enough because they didn't cover all members of the legislature.
"In order to make what is the most significant change in the rules in political fundraising that have been made in a generation, we need to listen to all of the concerns and make the changes that separate out...the building of networks from the raising of money," she said Wednesday.
"So we didn't see an amendment after first reading that went as far as that."
That includes the Liberals' own amendments. They had proposed dealing with the issue through a code of conduct, instead of legislation.
Just the week before, Attorney General Yasir Naqvi said they weren't keen on banning such fundraising events through the legislation, saying it could prohibit every member of provincial parliament from fundraising and that would be too restrictive.
Wynne said Wednesday that the rules need to be applied equally, from cabinet ministers to opposition members.
"If we believe, and I'm sure everyone in every caucus believes that at some point there's the possibility that they will be a cabinet minister, they will be in government, then I think the principle applies to everyone," she said.
The Liberals have said the new proposal was not a last-minute decision, but details are so far scant about the wording of the amendment and how it would work.
"We don't have the amendment ready at this point," Wynne said.
The amendment would not ban politicians from attending backyard barbecues, but they couldn't include fundraising, Wynne said.
The Liberals also want to increase a per-vote subsidy for parties "to offset the impacts on parties and riding associations." Their amendments already included a per-vote subsidy of $2.71, up from their originally proposed $2.26, to offset the loss of corporate and union donations, which the legislation would ban.
