01 Jun Union tries end run around election rules

Minutes of the April 9 meeting of the Mainland Nova Scotia Building and Construction Trades Council confirm that the council tried to circumvent statutory campaign limits.

A member of another political party described the minutes to Contrarian Saturday evening, and agreed to forward copies, on condition of anonymity. While waiting for the minutes to arrive, Contrarian sought reaction from NDP campaign director Matt Hebb, who said he had no knowledge of the donations.

Today, the original source forwarded the minutes shown above, shortly after the NDP announced it was returning $45,000 in Trades Council donations. The source ascribed the delay in sending them to “a possible legal challenge.”

After conferring with Council President Cordell Cole, Hebb said the contributions were “questionable.”

“As long as there is a question, the only thing to do is to return the money,” he said.

The Trades Council is an umbrulla group composed of separate unions representing individual trades: plumbers, carpenters, laborers, etc.

The Nova Scotia Elections Act limits donations from any one source to $5,000. The union donations apparently came in amounts of $5,000 or less from constituent construction unions, but sources said the council planned to reimburse them, which would  violate the spirit if not the letter of the law.