The president of the Vancouver and District Labour Council says he's not opposed in principle to a Vision Vancouver motion before council proposing a ban on corporate and union donations to civic elector organizations and members of city council.

"But in practice it plays out as kind of anti-union," VDLC's Bill Saunders told the Straight . "That's good if citizens are actually running things. But a lot of times when people bring this up, what they mean is, 'We want you to give the little bit that you got, so have absolutely no power, and then we're going to spread around the rules another way and let rich people run everything, because they're the ones who have the financial resources.' That's the part I don't want."

The motion, written by councillors Heather Deal and George Chow, will be debated by council next Thursday (November 29), according to a Vision media release. The same release announced the party's disclosure of funds raised from March 18, 2006, to October 22, 2007, that paid the party's debt from the 2005 election campaign. The financial statement submitted to City Hall showed that corporations donated $221,424.93 and trade unions $9,065.

Former COPE councillor Tim Louis dismissed the Vision motion as "purely for optics".

"It's a great proposal, but they know it won't carry," Louis told the Straight . "They know the province won't implement it. If they thought it was going to be implemented, they would have never moved it."

The Deal-Chow motion also includes proposals for continuing disclosure of donations pre-elections, as Vision did, and a cap on election spending.

"Our entire campaign has been transparent, and we've got a broad array of donators, from individuals to corporations to communication companies to unions, and I'm proud of that," Deal told the Straight .

Deal argued that the real story isn't about corporations being the top donors for Vision, but that NPA mayor Sam Sullivan has consistently refused calls for him to disclose details of his fundraising activities before the required postelection deadline. "The mayor is saying he doesn't have to do that," she said. "People should know who's donating to us during our term."

Vision councillor Raymond Louie told the Straight that the challenge goes to COPE as well. "We have now gone well beyond any party in declaring who's supporting us," Louie said. "Why won't the NPA and COPE do the same?"