Agencies, Boards, Commissions and Corporations (ABCCs) > Administrative

Compliance Audit Committee

The Compliance Audit Committee is a local board of the City that receives and makes decisions on applications for compliance audits of candidates' municipal election campaign finances and any by-elections during Council's term. The powers and functions of the committee are pursuant to the Municipal Elections Act, 1996.

An elector, who is entitled to vote in an election and believes on reasonable grounds that a candidate has contravened a provision of the Municipal Elections Act, 1996 relating to election campaign finances, may apply for a compliance audit of the candidate's campaign finances.

An application for a compliance audit shall be made to the Clerk. This application shall be in writing and shall set out the reasons for the elector's belief within 90 days after the candidate's financial filing date.

Under amendments to the Municipal Elections Act, 1996, an outgoing City Council is required to establish a compliance audit committee before October 1 of an election year to address election financing complaints received after an election.

Board responsibilities
The committee conducts itself in accordance with a procedures by-law (PDF) and is also governed by sections 81 and 81.1of the Municipal Elections Act, 1996. Meetings of the committee are to be conducted in accordance with the open meeting provisions as set out in section 190 of the City of Toronto Act, 2006.

The Committee is responsible for performing the functions relating to the compliance audit application process as outlined in the Act. These functions include:

1. considering a compliance audit application received from an elector and deciding whether it should be granted or rejected
2. appointing an auditor, if the application is granted
3. receiving the auditor's report
4. considering the auditor's report and deciding whether legal proceedings should be commenced
5. determining whether to recover the costs of conducting the compliance audit from the applicant if the auditor's report indicates there were no apparent contraventions and if there were no reasonable grounds for the application

Term of office
Four years coincident with the term of Council.

Note: In August 2010, City Council (Item EX46.1) appointed three members to the committee for a term of office coincident with the term of Council following the 2010 regular municipal election (December 1, 2010, to November 30, 2014).

To ensure the continuity of the committee and enable it to meet a legislative requirement to consider audit applications within 30 days of receipt, City Council also appointed alternate members whose appointments will take effect should there be any vacancies on the committee during the 2010-2014 term.

Composition
The Compliance Audit Committee consists of 3 citizen members, with membership drawn from the following stakeholder groups:

• accounting and auditing - accountants or auditors with experience in preparing or auditing the financial statements of municipal candidates
• academic - college or university professors with expertise in political science or local government administration
• legal
• other individuals with knowledge of the campaign financing rules of the Municipal Elections Act, 1996

Under the Act, the following individuals are ineligible for an appointment to the committee:

1. employees or officers of the City, or
2. members of City Council, or
3. any persons who are candidates in the election for which the committee is established

Any person appointed must agree in writing that he or she will not provide advice to, prepare or audit the election financial statements of any candidate for office on Toronto City Council or become a candidate in the municipal election and any by-elections during the term of Council that corresponds to the term of the committee.

Meetings
The committee will meet as needed with meetings to be scheduled when a compliance audit application is received.

Application for a Compliance Audit
The application to the committee for a compliance audit and general information on the application process are available on the Compliance Audit Committee website.

	Compliance Audit Committee
	Compliance Audit Committee schedule of meetings
	Committee's Procedure By-law (PDF)
	Municipal Elections Act, 1996
	City of Toronto Act, 2006
	Board-specific processes and requirements

You may need the free Adobe Acrobat Viewer to view PDF files.