Vancouver city council will discuss a motion next week aimed at making changes to the city’s municipal election rules.

A motion from Vision Vancouver councillor Andrea Reimer calls for the B.C. Ministry of Community, Sport and Cultural Development to update the Vancouver Charter to allow the city to set campaign finance rules and consider alternate voting systems.

Some of the municipal election changes Reimer is seeking through the motion include: setting limits on annual contribution amounts to candidates and elector organizations; banning union and corporation donations; setting annual spending limits by candidates and elector organizations; and continuous disclosure of donations and expenses.

Reimer said the request to change campaign finance rules follows city council’s unanimous endorsement in March 2010 of a set of recommendations by an all-party subcommittee, which were submitted to a provincial task force on local government elections.

“They were supposed to bring in changes in time of the 2011 election, and they didn’t,” Reimer told the Straight by phone. “We think that given that they had a year and a bit to do that, maybe if we start now, we might have the changes in time for the 2014 elections.”

Reimer’s motion calls for city council to write to the minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development and reiterate the request to have the ability under the Vancouver Charter to make campaign finance rules and consider alternate voting systems. Reimer also suggests a new request be made for the ability to release raw vote data, and that city council ask for recommendations from the 2011 chief elections officer for measures to increase voter turnout, citizen involvement and fairness for all candidates in the 2014 civic election.

Reimer said the ban on corporate and union donations would “change the nature” of the type of donors.

“If there were a level playing field and all parties had to get 100 percent from individuals, I think it would certainly change the way the parties approach donations,” she said.

The complete set of recommendations made by the all-party committee in 2010 included basing limits on contributions and expenditures on a per-elector or capita basis, per-candidate formula, disallowing contributions from sources outside of Canada, requiring that all donations and expenses be disclosed on a continuous basis at six month intervals, and providing local governments with the authority to use any method of elections they wish to use.

Ellen Woodsworth, a former COPE councillor and the head of the committee that put forward the recommendations in 2010, said she’s glad to see the issue going forward. However, she maintained that having a ward or proportional representation system in the city is critical.

“Without that we’ll continue to see the large parties really dominate the election,” she argued. “Without a ward system, individuals are not able to run and win, and small parties find it extremely difficult to have anyone elected.”

Reimer said she expects to get the full support of council on the motion, which will go before council on January 31.

In a news release, Mayor Gregor Robertson said major changes are needed to improve the democratic process at the local level.

“The current rules are out of date with the types of elections being run in Vancouver and across BC,” he said. “It’s time the Province took major steps to increase the fairness and transparency of local elections.”