There was “no credible basis” to suggest that Ward 11 Coun. Bill Leduc exercised a level of due diligence to avoid apparent contraventions of the Municipal Elections Act.
Further, Leduc did not express “any contrition or remorse for the apparent contraventions.”
So concludes the City of Greater Sudbury’s Election Compliance Audit Committee’s written notice of decision for moving forward with legal proceedings against Ward 11 Coun. Bill Leduc.
This written notice follows last week’s meeting, at which they made the decision to punt the matter to the court system after finding reasonable grounds to determine Leduc breached various campaign finance rules leading up to the 2022 civic election.
The committee requested the report last year, and it revealed four apparent breaches.
These apparent breaches — which have yet to be evaluated by a judge — included accepting $500 in cash from a donor (the cash limit is $25), accepting three bank drafts from the same account totalling $3,000 (the limit is $1,200), and $307 in campaign expenses recorded from 15 expenditures but not paid from Leduc’s campaign bank account.
The most significant apparent breach was Leduc not accounting for Grandparents’ Day 2022 as an election expense. This $2,998.27 cost would bump him well beyond his legal spending limit of $14,159 (he recorded $14,017).
Leduc’s counterpoints were that the Grandparents’ Day event was not a campaign event, the $500 in cash was recorded via photocopied bank notes and the name of the donor and the memo lines of the three bank drafts had different names on them, and the $307 expenditure was a matter of convenience with “no bad will.” Leduc did not reimburse himself for these $307 in expenses from campaign funds.
In their written notice of decision, the committee concluded they were “not presented with credible evidence that would establish the candidate exercised all reasonable care or took all the objectively reasonable steps that may be expected of an experienced candidate in a municipal election in order to avoid offending the statute through his campaign activities.”
Via both Leduc’s written submissions and his legal counsel, lawyer Tim Harmar, Leduc “conceded that certain actions did occur, but has not expressed any contrition or
remorse for the apparent contraventions,” according to the notice of decision.
When asked by the committee last week if he would concede that he contravened the Municipal Elections Act by accepting a cash contribution in excess of $25, Harmer acknowledged that this happened but declined to offer a concession, while Leduc did not respond.
Prosecution would be in the public’s interest, the committee determined, affirming that while there are apparent contraventions of campaign finance rules and that the final determination will now be made by the courts.
“The committee does not accept the candidate’s assertion that the apparent contraventions were trivial or in the de minimis range,” according to their written notice of decision.
“Individually and collectively, the candidate’s apparent contraventions are significant, both in terms of monetary value and potential impact to the integrity of the electoral process.”
Leduc’s apparent contraventions “are serious and threaten to undermine the important public policy goals animating the campaign finance regime,” according to the written notice of decision, noting that this includes “maintaining a level playing field amongst all candidates, and ensuring proper records are kept of campaign finance activities so as to enable a high degree of public scrutiny.”
This matter is being sent to the provincial offences system. Although the timeline with which it will be dealt with is unclear, the province notes that prosecution related to the 2022 election must be commenced before Nov. 15, 2026. The next municipal election will be held on Oct. 26, 2026.
Editor's note: Since this story was initially published, a city spokesperson responded to our inquiry to clarify that they spent $69,888.08 plus HST on the third-party KPMG audit of Leduc's campaign finances. The city will also be responsible for the costs of the prosecution, but they do not yet have an estimate for those costs.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
