Using a dedicated campaign bank account

Dedicated campaign bank accounts for local government elections are required to ensure transparency of financial matters, including receiving gifts and loans, and incurring electoral expenditure.

You must open this campaign account before paying for any electoral expenditure or accepting any gifts or loans for the election. Candidates who do not accept donations must still have a dedicated campaign account, otherwise you will not be able to nominate.

You’ll need to notify the ECQ of your account details within 5 business days of:

publicly announcing an intent to contest the election
first accepting a gift
first incurring expenditure toward your campaign.

All gifts and loans must be deposited into your dedicated campaign bank account .

All campaign expenses including electoral expenditure must be paid from your dedicated campaign bank account. The account must not be used for any other purposes.

If you want to use your own personal money to fund your campaign, you must transfer it into your dedicated campaign bank account before using it to pay for campaign expenses.

There are restrictions about how amounts can be paid from the account. The use of a credit card is strictly prohibited.

Any amounts remaining in the account at the end of the election can only be dealt with in certain ways (see fact sheets below). Excess amounts cannot be transferred back into personal bank accounts.

Links to further information: