Information Session

Financial Filing forCandidates and Registered

Third Party Advertisers

Election Services, City Clerk’s Office

March 4, 2019

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Information Session Agenda

• Introduction

• Presentation by the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs & Housing

• Presentation by City of Toronto Election Services

Financial Filing Recap and Key Dates

Ways to File Your Financial Statement

Overview of the Contribution Rebate Program

Overview of the Electronic Financial Filing System (EFFS)

Correcting a Filed Financial Statement

Compliance Audit Process

Resources

• Question and Answer Period

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Presentation by the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing

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Presentation by City of Toronto Election Services

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Financial Filing Recap

• If you filed a nomination to run as a candidate, or registered as a third party

advertiser, you must file a financial statement by 2 p.m. on March 29, 2019.

Even if you did not raise or spend any money.

Even if you withdrew your candidacy or were deemed withdrawn.

• Do not leave filing until the last day!

• You will be considered in default of the Municipal Elections Act, 1996 if you do not file

your financial statement.

Candidates in default will be ineligible to run until after the next general election.

Candidates will not receive their nomination filing fee refund.

Third party advertisers in default will be ineligible to register until after the next general

election.

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Key Dates – Initial Campaign Period

Initial Campaign Period (applies to all candidates and registered third party advertisers)

March 28, 2019 • Last day to apply to the Superior Court of Justice to extend the Financial

Statement filing deadline for up to 90 days

March 29, 2019 by 2 p.m. • Deadline to file Financial Statement

• Deadline to notify City Clerk of court-approved filing extension

March 29, 2019 after 2 p.m. • Start of 30-day grace period during which the Financial Statement can still be

filed if accompanied by a $500 late fee

April 1, 2019 • Start of compliance audit period

April 29, 2019 by 2 p.m. • End of 30-day grace period during which the Financial Statement can still be

filed if accompanied by a $500 late fee

June 27, 2019 • Last day to apply for a compliance audit for the initial campaign period

December 30, 2019 • Deadline to receive Contribution Rebate Applications from contributors

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Key Dates – Supplementary Campaign PeriodSupplementary Campaign Period (applies only to those who extended their campaign)

July 2, 2019 • End of supplementary campaign period

Sept 26, 2019 • Last day to apply to the Superior Court of Justice to extend the supplementary

Financial Statement filing deadline for up to 90 days

Sept 27, 2019 by 2 p.m. • Deadline to file supplementary Financial Statement

• Deadline to notify City Clerk of court-approved filing extension

Sept 27, 2019 after 2 p.m. • Start of 30-day grace period during which the supplementary Financial Statement

can still be filed if accompanied by a $500 late fee

Sept 30, 2019 • Start of compliance audit period

Oct 28, 2019 by 2 p.m. • End of 30-day grace period during which the Financial Statement can still be filed

if accompanied by a $500 late fee

Dec 27, 2019 • Last day to apply for a compliance audit for the supplementary period

Dec 30, 2019 • Deadline to receive Contribution Rebate Applications from contributors

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Ways to File your Financial Statement

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Ways to File Your Financial Statement

• In person at an Election Services office:

City Hall, 100 Queen St W, 1st Floor North

• Electronically (only if certain conditions are met)

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In Person Financial Filing

• Who can file in person?

Any candidate or registered third party advertiser.

• Who must file in person?

Those with a campaign surplus (the surplus must be paid when you file).

Those candidates participating in the Contribution Rebate Program (copies of expense invoices must be submitted when you file).

• Note: Even if you are filing your financial statement in person, the City’s Electronic Financial Filing System (EFFS) is useful to generate the form you are required to file.

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Electronic Financial Filing

• Who can file electronically?

Only those candidates and registered third party advertisers who:

Do not have a surplus AND

Are not participating in the Contribution Rebate Program.

• New this year, eligible candidates and registered third party advertisers can file their financial statement by uploading a signed copy through the Electronic Financial Filing System (EFFS).

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Overview of theContribution Rebate Program

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Contribution Rebate Program Overview

• The Contribution Rebate Program allows contributors to receive a portion of their contribution to a candidate back.

Only mayor and councillor candidates can choose to participate in the program.

Only monetary contributions are eligible for a rebate (does not apply to good or services).

• A contributor’s rebate is based on the total amount of money they contributed to allcandidates who are participating in the program.

Rebates are not issued if a contributor’s total contributions to all candidates is $25 or less.

• A candidate’s campaign must be closed before their contributors can receive a rebate.

• Candidates participating in the Contribution Rebate Program are eligible to receive a rebate on contributions they made to their own campaign.

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Additional Filing Requirements

• Candidates participating in the Contribution Rebate Program must submit the following when filing a financial statement:

Auditor’s Report provided by a licensed auditor under the Public Accounting Act, 2004 (this is required no matter how much money you raised or spent!).

Photocopies of all campaign expense invoices.

Candidates using manual rebate forms (instead of EFFS) are also required to submit the pink copy of all Contribution Rebate Receipt Application forms.

• All documents must be attached at the time of filing your financial statement.

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Candidate and Contributor Responsibilities

The Candidate:

• Issues a Contribution Rebate Receipt Application form for everymonetary contribution (even if it's not eligible for a rebate)

• Completes the ‘Contribution Receipt’ section of the form

• Sends the form to the contributor to complete

The Contributor:

• Completes the rest of the form and makes a copy for their records

• Mails the original form to Elections by December 30, 2019

Earliest a contributor can receive a rebate is August 2019

January 2020 for extended campaigns

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Generating Contribution Rebate Receipts in EFFS

• Contribution Rebate Receipt Application forms can be generated through EFFS by:

Adding the contributor and their contribution into EFFS

Searching the contributor, clicking the Receipt Number and then “Print”

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Overview of theElectronic Financial Filing System

(EFFS)

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The Electronic Financial Filing System (EFFS)

• EFFS was designed to simplify financial filing. It allows users to:

Enter and keep track of contributions, expenses, and fundraising events.

Generate a filled-out financial statement, ready to be signed and submitted.

Produce Contribution Rebate Receipt Application forms to send to contributors (applies to mayor and councillor candidates only).

• EFFS’s design reflects the required financial statement form:

Once you have input all of your contributions and expenses, the system will perform and input the calculations on the required financial statement form.

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EFFS Overview

• EFFS is divided in two parts: Contributions and Expenses & Financial Statement

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Adding Contributions• To add a contribution, first search for the contributor

If they have not already been entered, add them.

To add a contribution, click on the Contributor ID and then enter their contribution information.

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Uploading a List of Contributions

• If you have a lot of contributions to add, you can use the Excel template provided in EFFS and upload all the information at once.

You must follow the template exactly.

If you get an error message when uploading the spreadsheet, you can check the “Exception Report” to determine the issue and re-upload.

• It is recommended that you enter all of your contributions into the template before uploading.

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Adding Expenses

• The Expenses & Financial Statement section is where you record all of your campaign expenses. It is also where you generate your financial statement on the required form.

You can insert values that you have entered into the Contributions section by clicking the “Insert Calculated Value” button.

*Remember: a candidate’s nomination filing fee is not a campaign expense.

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Generating Your Financial Statement

Remember: not everyone is eligible to submit their financial statement electronically!

• Once you have entered (and double-checked) all of your contributions and expenses info EFFS, click the Summary tab and “Preview financial statement” to generate a PDF of your financial statement.

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Filing Your Financial Statement Through EFFS

Remember: not everyone is eligible to submit their financial statement electronically

• To submit your financial statement online, you must:

Print the statement

Sign and scan it

Upload the scanned statement back into EFFS and click to submit

• You will receive automatic email confirmation of your submission. This does not yet mean that you have filed.

Election Services will review the statement that you submitted.

If approved, you will receive an email containing the filed copy.

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Correcting a Filed Financial Statement

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Correcting a Filed Financial Statement

• If you file your financial statement and identify an error later on, you can withdraw the statement and file a new one by 2 p.m. on the filing deadline.

• If applicable, the corrected statement must have a new auditor's report attached.

• If the corrected financial statement identifies an additional surplus, the additional money must be paid when the corrected statement is filed.

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Process for a Compliance Audit

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Compliance Audit Process

• If an eligible elector believes that a candidate or registered third party advertiser has contravened election finance rules, they may apply for a compliance audit of campaign finances.

Compliance audit applications must be submitted at the City Hall Election Services Office

• An application for a compliance audit must be submitted within 90 days of the deadline to file the campaign financial statement (June 27, 2019).

• The Compliance Audit Committee will consider the application and decide whether to grant or reject the application, and whether to commence legal action.

• The Compliance Audit Committee does not have any authority to set penalties. Only the court can decide if and which penalties should apply.

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Resources and Further Questions

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Resources

• Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing Election Guides

Candidates: Completing the Financial Statement // A to Z tips for Completing Form 4

Third Party Advertisers: Completing the Financial Statement

• City of Toronto Elections website:

Candidates: Financial Filing Requirements // Contribution Rebate Program

Third Party Advertisers: Campaign Finance and Financial Statements

2018/2019 Key Dates

• Electronic Financial Filing System (EFFS) User Manual

Available through the MyCampaign portal

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Questions?

Election Services

candidateinfo@toronto.ca // 416-395-0025

thirdpartyinfo@toronto.ca // 416-338-5998

Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing

MSOC.Admin@ontario.ca // 416-585-6226