Rules on local political parties revealed 2 weeks before Bill 20 comes into effect

The Alberta legislature can be seen in this undated file photo.

Alberta municipalities are getting their first look at new rules around local political parties and how they will be funded.

Details of the province's new Municipal Affairs Statutes Amendment Act, or Bill 20, are being revealed Friday, two weeks before the legislation comes into effect.

The bill, which has been heavily criticized by Alberta municipal leaders, makes changes to the Municipal Government Act and the Local Authorities Election Act.

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Those changes include allowing political parties on local ballots in Calgary and Edmonton and province-wide changes to expense limits, though details were not given at the time the bill was passed in May.

In the new Local Political Parties and Slates Regulation (LPPSR) released Friday, the province outlines how the new political parties will act.

Regulation include that: 

• Parties cannot have any formal affiliation with a provincial or federal party, and cannot receive donations from them.
• Parties won't be allowed on school board trustee ballots.
• Parties will be required to submit a list of endorsed candidates, and the party name will be listed next to the candidate's name on ballots.
• Municipal candidates are not required to affiliate with a party.
• Contributions to parties can only be made by Alberta residents and organizations.

While campaign expenses will remain limited, there will be no limits on operational spending for local political parties and contributions can be carried forward into subsequent election cycles.

"That's the nature of a political party. It's ongoing operations," McIver said. "There has to be some ongoing operational expenses to make that possible."

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Union and corporate donations will also be allowed again, ending an almost nine-year ban brought in by the Alberta NDP in 2015. Those donations will be held to the same limits as individual donors, and will need to be reported.

Since the bill was announced, municipal leaders from across Alberta have pushed back against several amendments – including corporate donations – saying the new legislation will put local governments "up for sale."

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"That's a ridiculous thing for them to say," Minister of Municipal Affairs Ric McIver said Thursday in an interview with CTV News Edmonton. "Just as much money gets spent now as it did before the NDP changed the rules."

"There's no reason why an individual candidate can't have a corporate backer or several of them," he said. "That's called a campaign – who can raise the most money."

McIver said the regulations aren't designed to take "big money" out of local politics, claiming it's already happening.

"We've acknowledged that money will always find its way back in there," he said. "What's most important is that it's transparent. The public can find out who's giving money to who, and we think that's a big improvement."

Albertans will not know which unions or corporations have donated to a party or candidate in the October 2025 election, as those entities will not be required to disclose donations until March 2026.

The Municipal Affairs Statutes Amendment Act comes into force at the end of the month.

McIver said the province will decide after next year's election if the political-party pilot will be expanded or terminated – though he could not say what metrics its success would be measured by.

"Between elections, we will look at what actually happened, as opposed to what you and I might expect happened, and we will use the examples of what actually happened to inform future decisions," he said.

The province will be announcing more details on the legislation at 8:30 a.m.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Chelan Skulski