NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh responds to a question during a press conference marking the 60th anniversary of the NDP, at the Jack Layton Monument in Toronto on Aug. 3, 2021.Tijana Martin/The Canadian Press
The NDP is the only major federal party that has not submitted its 2020 financial statement to Elections Canada and now has an extension to do so before the end of the summer.
Federal parties must submit their financial statements for each fiscal year by June 30 of the following year. Though requesting an extension on this deadline isn’t uncommon, the NDP has done so more than any other major party, and since 2015, has had extensions in every year but one.
The NDP now has until Aug. 30 to submit its 2020 statement, according to Elections Canada. The statements include an accounting of its revenue and planned and actual expenses. Though the party says it is preparing the statement and will submit it, the NDP’s repeated requests for extensions stand out from the norm.
The Conservative Party and Green Party requested deadline extensions in 2019. The Bloc Québécois asked for one in 2018. The NDP had extensions in 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020, according to Elections Canada.
The Liberals have not requested an extension in that time.
Pauline Beange, a political-science lecturer at the University of Toronto who studies party finances, said the consistent pattern of extensions requested by the NDP is in sharp contrast to the rare extension other parties sometimes require.
“As a possible voter, I would ask the question, if they can’t file their own party financial returns on time, what might they do with a national budget?” Dr. Beange said. She added that it appears be the result of poor management.
“I don’t see why the NDP would be unduly hampered when some of the very tiny parties like the Communist Party of Canada can file on time,” she said.
Of the 19 parties registered with Elections Canada, 12 have submitted their financial statements for the previous year. This includes the Liberals, Conservatives, Bloc Québécois and Green Party, as well as smaller parties including the Marxist-Leninist Party and the Rhinoceros Party.
Of the parties that have not submitted their financial statements for the previous year, five, including the NDP, have extensions. Another was exempt because it was only registered last September. One did not submit a statement.
“The NDP’s annual audited statement is still being prepared,” said Jesse Calvert, the party’s deputy national director, in a statement. “We will – and have always – provide Elections Canada with our audited statement as it’s a requirement under the Canada Elections Act.”
Anne McGrath, the NDP’s national director, attributed some of the delay to the party’s practice of fundraising for small amounts, which takes longer to assess.
“Most of our donors are well under $100, and we do the work for the auditor ourselves, in-house,” she said in an interview, adding that it comes down to “staffing capacity.”
Ms. McGrath noted the party has filed its quarterly financial statements on time, including one in June, and that the NDP is in better financial shape than it has been going into previous elections. By the end of 2020, the party had paid off the campaign debts incurred in 2015 and 2019, and has had strong fundraising this year.
She added that in 2019 the party spent just under $10.5-million on the entire campaign, but this year, it’ll be spending more than that on its advertising budget alone.
“We have a plane ready, we have two buses, we have our advertising campaign ready to go,” Ms. McGrath said. “We will be very competitive from a financial point of view.”
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