Clive Doucet releases list of donors to mayoral campaign

Ottawa mayoral candidate Clive Doucet has released a list of donors to his mayoral campaign, joining a list of other Ottawa municipal candidates who have done so in effort to make transparency a campaign issue.

All candidates must disclose their campaign finances, but the law doesn't require them to do it until March, well past election day.

Doucet joins other candidates who have disclosed unaudited lists of campaign donations ahead of the Oct. 22 election, including Raylene Lang-Dion, Kevin Kit, John Redins and Jean Cloutier in Alta Vista; Theresa Kavanaugh in Bay ward; Emilie Coyle in College ward; Judy Varga-Toth in West Carleton-March and Christine McAllister and Shawn Menardin Capital ward.

The issue of who a councillor accepts donations from particularly developers emerged as a major issue at an all-candidates debate in Alta Vista last month. The incumbent for that ward, Jean Cloutier, who also sits on the planning committee, earlier cancelled a developer-backed fundraiser.

Donors gave more than $100

The list released byDoucetincludes 82donors who gave more than $100 each. The total given by those donors is listed as$28,686, with six donors giving$1,200, which is the maximum amount allowed under provincial election law.

According to postal codes included in the list, the majority ofdonors appear to hail from the Glebe, Old Ottawa South and neighbourhoods in the west end of the city.

Doucetreceived another $19,071 from donors who gave less than $100, according to the list. The identities of those donors were not released and are not required to be by law.

Scuffle over developer donations

Most councillors on the city's planning committee which approves billions of dollars worth of development each term have accepted donations from developers, which is allowed under provincial election rules.

In an interview with CBC's Ottawa Morning earlier this month, Mayor Jim Watson denied that accepting donations from individual developers is a conflict of interest.

"I can't think of one example where someone has given someone a campaign donation and then they've flipped their vote because of it," Watson said. "It's a bit of an urban myth that city hall is controlled by people outside city hall."

He said he had accepted donations from developers during his campaign, though he has not released a list of campaign donors.

Watson told the CBCthat he will not be releasing a list of contributions to his campaign before election day.

Under provincial rules, candidates can't accept money from corporations and unions but developers are free to donate up to $1,200 to a campaign as an individual donor.

Doucet has previously said that if elected, any councillor who accepts donations from developers will not be allowed to sit on the planning committee.

With files from Laura Osman and Joanne Chianello