Incurring electoral expenditure and expenditure caps

Incurring electoral expenditure

The term electoral expenditure has a specific meaning for local government elections – it's incurred for a campaign purpose and can include the cost of expenses like:

  • opinion polling or research
  • advertisements broadcast at a cinema, on radio or television, or on the internet
  • billboards and signs.

This is not an exhaustive list – agents of registered political parties should read the ECQ’s fact sheets and handbook for more detailed information about what is and is not electoral expenditure, as not all campaign expenses will be considered electoral expenditure.

Expenditure caps are limitations on the amount of electoral expenditure that can be incurred during the capped expenditure period for a local government election.

The expenditure cap amount varies across each local government area, and whether the party’s endorsed candidate is contesting a mayoral or councillor position. Registered political parties do not have their own cap amounts for local elections – parties and their endorsed candidates share the same cap amount. The ECQ publishes relevant electoral expenditure cap information for each election on its website.

Each local government election has a capped expenditure period. During this period, a registered political party and its endorsed candidates may only incur electoral expenses up to their capped amount. The capped expenditure period for an election will be published in the notice of expenditure caps for the election.

Video overviews

Links to further information: