Frequently Asked Questions - Candidates

A task force, committee, or board member may serve in a role while also being a candidate, just the same as a member of City Council can also be a candidate. They of course are required to comply with the Use of Corporate Resources for Election Purposes Policy, and their respective Code of Conducts, and possible Terms of Reference for the Committee/Task Force/Board.

The city does not publish other links such as social media, websites, etc.. The intent of this column is for addresses of campaign offices, or other mailing addresses (such as PO Boxes)

View the unofficial list of candidates.

There will be no indication of incumbency status on the ballot. Names will be listed/read in alphabetical order by last name.

The Municipal Elections Act, 1996 does not require candidate debates to be held, and the municipal clerk is not responsible for organizing meetings or debates. Debates could be organized by community groups, media outlets, candidates or any other interested persons.

You can accept contributions only from individuals who are residents of Ontario. Corporations and trade unions are not permitted to make contributions to candidates. Groups such as clubs, associations or ratepayer’s groups are not eligible to make contributions. The members of these groups may make individual contributions from their personal funds (as long as they are residents of Ontario).

Eligible individuals, corporations and trade unions can register to be third party advertisers. Third party advertising is separate from any candidate’s campaign and must be done independently from a candidate.

Page 13 of the Provincial Voters’ Guide states the following: “Any contribution of money must come directly from the contributor. You are not permitted to pool contributions from others and then forward that money to a candidate’s campaign or to a third party advertiser. If a contribution is made from a joint account, it must be clear which person is making the contribution.”

Page 20 of the Provincial Candidates’ Guide states the following: “If you receive a contribution from a joint account, the contribution can only come from one person. You must determine who is making the contribution and issue the receipt to that person.”

Page 13 of the 2022 Voters’ Guide for Ontario Municipal Council and School Board Elections (which was included within your Candidate’s Guide) provides the following guidance within the “Who Can Make Contributions” section:

“Any person who is a resident of Ontario can make a contribution to a candidate’s campaign or contribute to a third party advertiser to help fund their advertisements.
Corporations carrying on business in Ontario, and trade unions that hold bargaining rights for employees in Ontario, are not permitted to make contributions to candidates in municipal elections in Ontario. However, they may contribute to third party advertisers.
Groups such as neighbourhood associations, clubs or professional associations, such as fire or police associations, are not eligible to make financial contributions to candidates or third party advertisers. Members may contribute individually.”

Page 14 of the 2022 Voters’ Guide for Ontario Municipal Council and School Board Elections (which was included within your Candidate’s Guide) provides the following guidance within the “Other Rules Regarding Contributions” section: “Contributions to municipal council and school board candidates, and third party advertisers are not tax deductible.”

Section 88.8(8) of the Act states, (8) “A contribution of money that exceeds $25 shall not be contributed in the form of cash and shall be contributed in a manner that associates the contributor’s name and account with the payment or by a money order signed by the contributor.”
Therefore, so long as the electronic fund transfer meets this stipulation and associates the contributor’s name and account with the payment, an electronic fund transfer can be accepted.

From the Ministry of Municipal Affairs Candidates’ Guide (Page 17 and 33):

“If you are given a special discount on a good or service that you are purchasing for your campaign, the difference between what you were charged and what the market value would be is considered to be a contribution.

Corporations and other businesses are not permitted to make contributions to candidates. If you are being offered a discount, you should make sure that whoever is offering the discount is entitled to make a personal contribution to your campaign.

If a professional who would normally charge for a service gives you that service for free, the market value of the service is considered to be a contribution.”

“Example: Your order for campaign signs would normally cost $500, but the vendor lets you have them for $300 because he wants to help out your campaign. You should record an expense of $500 for the signs and record a contribution of $200 in goods or services from the vendor. Note: As businesses are not permitted to make contributions, the contribution would have to be a personal contribution from the vendor. Contributions in goods or services from individuals other than the candidate or spouse must be recorded in Table 4 of Schedule 1.”

Page 17 of the MMAH 2018 Candidates Guide states the following:

- “Campaign contributions are any money, goods or services that are given to you for use in your campaign, including money and goods that you contribute to yourself.

-  If you are given a special discount on a good or service that you are purchasing for your campaign, the difference between what you were charged and what the market value would be is considered to be a contribution.

-  Corporations and other businesses are not permitted to make contributions to candidates. If you are being offered a discount, you should make sure that whoever is offering the discount is entitled to make a personal contribution to your campaign.

-  If a professional who would normally charge for a service gives you that service for free, the market value of the service is considered to be a contribution.

-  If you sell goods at a fundraising event for more than their market value, the difference between what the person attending the fundraising event paid you and what they would have normally paid for the item is considered to be a contribution.”

While most of your expenses will be subject to the general spending limit, the following expenses are not:

• expenses related to holding a fundraising event or activity
• expenses relating to a recount
• expenses relating to a court action for a controverted election
• expenses relating to a compliance audit
• expenses incurred by a candidate with a disability that are directly related to the candidate’s disability and would not have been incurred if not for the election
• audit and accounting fees

Section 88.25 (8) states: “No auditor’s report is required if the total contributions received and total expenses incurred in the election campaign up to the end of the relevant period are each equal to or less than $10,000.”

If a campaign has a surplus and received more contributions than expenses, then Section 88.31 (4)(5)(6) applies:
Surplus paid to clerk

(4) If the financial statement or supplementary financial statement filed with the clerk shows a surplus and the campaign period has ended at the time the statement is filed, the candidate or registered third party shall, when the statement is filed, pay the surplus to the clerk, reduced by the amount of any refund under subsection

Surplus held in trust by clerk

(5) The clerk shall hold the amount paid under subsection (4) in trust for the candidate or registered third party.

Refund

(6) If a candidate or registered third party who has a surplus has made contributions to the campaign or, in the case of an individual, if his or her spouse has made contributions to the campaign, the candidate or registered third party may, after the campaign period ends but before filing the financial statement or supplementary financial statement, as the case may be, refund to the candidate or registered third party or to the spouse, as the case may be, an amount that does not exceed the lesser of,

(a) the relevant contributions;

(b) the surplus.                         

From the Ministry of Municipal Affairs Candidates’ Guide (Page 10): All candidates’ debates: “The Municipal Elections Act, 1996 does not require candidate debates to be held, and the municipal clerk is not responsible for organizing meetings or debates. Debates can be organized by community groups, media outlets, candidates or any other interested persons.” Joint campaigns / running on a slate: “There is nothing in the Municipal Elections Act, 1996 that would prevent like-minded candidates from campaigning on the same platform or identifying themselves as a group or slate. However, each candidate must keep their campaign finances separate and any joint expenses (for example, signs with two candidates’ names on them) must be divided between the campaigns.”

From the Ministry of Municipal Affairs Candidates’ Guide (Page 21 and 33):

• “Expenses must be paid from your campaign bank account. If you use a credit card to pay for purchases you should make sure that you keep clear records showing that the expense on the credit card was reimbursed from the campaign account.”
• “Any interest that the campaign pays on the loan is a campaign expense.”

No, however, you must make sure that you have opened up a separate bank account where the funds contributed towards your campaign will be deposited into.

You are entitled to recoup contributions made by yourself or your spouse out of the surplus.  Example: if there is $500 surplus and you contributed $400 to your campaign, you may deduct that $400, leaving a surplus of $100. The $100 would be turned over to the Clerk. If you contributed $600 to your campaign then the balance would be $0.  (See Campaign surplus page 32 of the Candidates Guide for Ontario Municipal Council and School Board Elections – Ontario).

Candidates may request photocopies from the Clerk’s office of any documentation submitted during the nomination process.

The Estimate of Maximum Expenditures were created using 2014 elector counts transposed over the new 2018 ward boundaries. There is no specific counts available for number of doors, just number of properties. The elector count is as follows:

Candidates should read the Municipal Elections Act Section 88.19 to understand what is or is not a campaign expense, and what might or might not count towards the Maximum Expenditures limits. Candidates may view filed financial statements from previous Municipal Election Campaigns to compare previous candidate practice However, candidates should always refer to the Municipal Elections Act to ensure compliance with the 2022 regulations.

“Any taxes such as HST paid on purchases should be included in the amount of the expense.”

Copies of the Candidates’ Guide may be purchased at the City’s prevailing photocopying rate ($0.50/double sided, colour page x 140 pages) for a total cost of $70.00

From the Use of Corporate Resources Policy:
Candidates may not use corporate resources, including City communication, or City social media resources, for Election purposes.
1.2.1   The following corporate resources may be hyperlinked to from a Candidate’s website (not emailed, or circulated via social media), but may not be housed on the Candidate’s website, or modified/reproduced for use in any campaign related material: By-laws, Strategic Plans, Staff Reports, Minutes, Agendas, Budgets, Policies, City produced photographs and videos, Election Guides/Forms, and any City website.
The definition of “Social Media” in the policy includes YouTube.

From the Use of Corporate Resources Policy:
“Candidates are prohibited from… Using or misrepresenting imagery of City Hall while Campaigning or on Election Related materials, websites, or communications… Using any photographs or videos produced for and owned by the City for any Election Related purposes. Unless permission is granted by the City Clerk.”

The City’s Use of Corporate Resources Policy states: 

a.    1.3       Candidates may not undertake any Election Related activities or Campaigning in the City workplace.

b.    1.4       Candidates may not undertake any Election Related activities or Campaigning on any municipal property unless permitted by the City Clerk, or his or her designate, or unless a valid rental agreement has been entered into by the candidate.

The Municipal Elections Act doesn’t necessarily regulate the use of social media by candidates (criminal law may apply to social media posts that are libelous, fraudulent or misleading), however, The City’s Use of Corporate Resources Policy states: 

a.    1.2       Candidates may not use corporate resources, including City communication, or City social media resources, for Election purposes.

b.    1.2.1   The following corporate resources may be hyperlinked to from a Candidate’s website (not emailed, or circulated via social media), but may not be housed on the Candidate’s website, or modified/reproduced for use in any campaign related material: By-laws, Strategic Plans, Staff Reports, Minutes, Agendas, Budgets, Policies, City produced photographs and videos, Election Guides/Forms, and any City website.

Both the Municipal Election Act and the Clerk's Procedures make no mention of not being allowed to use the term "Councillor" in campaign materials. The only related topic is in the Kawartha Lakes By-law to Regulate the Placement of Election Signs (download). It states in section 2.04:

            2.04 Terminology: No person shall falsely imply incumbency as a candidate who does not currently hold that same office. The following terms are hereby restricted for usage on election signs or political advertising, except where the defined criteria is met:

            a) Incumbent shall only be used if the candidate holds the current office, regardless of whether the individual was appointed or elected.

            b) Re-Elect shall only be used if the candidate holds the current office by election (not-appointment) and is seeking an additional consecutive term for the same office. This term shall not be used by candidates seeking election to a different ward divided seat or office on the Council or Local Board than the office they currently hold (Example: An incumbent Councillor for Ward 1, shall not use the term ‘re-elect’ if running for election to the same Council in Ward 2).

The Use of Corporate Resources Policy states the following:

3.1 Candidates are prohibited from:

3.1.1 Including any active or inactive logo, slogan, tagline, crest, or seal used by City of Kawartha Lakes, or its predecessor municipalities on any Election Related materials, websites, or communications except in the case of a link to the City’s website to obtain information about the Municipal Election.

From the Ministry of Municipal Affairs Third Party Advertiser’s Guide (Page 6): Who can be a third party advertiser …“There is no restriction against family members or campaign staff of candidates registering to be third party advertisers. However, third party advertising must be done independently of the candidate. If a person with close ties to a candidate wants to register they should consider how these activities may look to the public and how they would be able to demonstrate that they were not working in co-ordination with the candidate.”

The sections of the by-law regarding placement period are:

3.02 Placement Period: Placement of election signs along highways or public property, are only permitted during the period 60 days prior to voting day; and

4.01 Placement Period: Placement of election signs along private property, are only permitted between the date of nomination of the candidate (or registration of a registered third party), and the day after election day.

An election sign is defined as:

Any sign, image, words, picture, device, notice or visual medium, or any combination thereof, including without limitation, any poster, placard, bulletin, banner, wearables such as hats, shirts and buttons or vehicle wrap, which identifies, depicts, promotes, advertises or provides information about;

a)    an individual who is a candidate; or

b)    a question or by-law submitted to electors; or

Promotes recognition of or influences persons to vote for or against any candidate or any question or by-law submitted to electors.

For the purpose of clarification, “Election Sign” includes “Vehicle Sign”, and “Ground Mounted Sign”.

You can start putting up your signs on public property (highways) on 60 days prior to Voting Day.

The election sign by-law (download) states:

3.02 Placement Period: Placement of election signs along highways or public property, are only permitted during the period 60 days prior to voting day; and

4.01 Placement Period: Placement of election signs along private property, are only permitted between the date of nomination of the candidate (or registration of a registered third party), and the day after election day.

The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing Candidates’ guide states the following:

“Signs: Your municipality may have rules about when you can put up campaign signs and how signs may be displayed on public property. All of your campaign signs and other advertising must identify that you are responsible for the sign. This is so that people seeing the sign or advertisement can tell that it is from your campaign, rather than from a third party advertiser.”
The Kawartha Lakes Election Sign By-law (download) does not specify any requirements for sign labelling or identification for Candidates’ signs. However, there are specific provisions for the labelling and identification requirements for Registered Third Party Advertisers in Section 7 of the By-law.

The 60 day period is specific to Highways and Public Property. The election sign by-law (download) states:

3.02 Placement Period: Placement of election signs along highways or public property, are only permitted during the period 60 days prior to voting day; and

4.01 Placement Period: Placement of election signs along private property, are only permitted between the date of nomination of the candidate (or registration of a registered third party), and the day after election day.

9.01 Offence – Provincial Offences Act: Every person who contravenes any provision of this by-law is guilty of an offence and upon conviction is liable to a fine as provided for by the Provincial Offences Act, R.S.O. 1990, Chapter P.33, as amended.

9.02 Offence – Municipal Act: Every person who contravenes any provision of this by-law is guilty of an offence and upon conviction is liable to a maximum fine of not more than $100,000.00, as provided for by Section 429 of the Municipal Act, 2001, S.O. 2001, Chapter 25, as amended.

9.03 Directors and Officers of Corporations: A director or officer of a corporation who knowingly concurs in the violation or contravention by the corporation of any provision of this by-law is guilty of an offence and upon conviction is liable to a maximum fine of not more than $100,000.00, as provided for by Section 429 of the Municipal Act, 2001, S.O. 2001, Chapter 25, as amended.

Do not alter the sign in question. If you feel the sign may be placed in error, you may contact the candidate directly and respectfully advise them of your concerns.

Alternatively, you may contact Municipal Law Enforcement by emailing bylawcomplaints@kawarthalakes.ca or completing their online by-law complaint form.

Vandalism and other criminal activity may be reported to the appropriate police authority.

There is no penalty to the candidate for not identifying the fact that signs were produced by their campaign. If we do not see something on the sign that would distinguish it as a third party advertisement, then we assume that the sign was produced and placed by the candidate’s campaign.

Section 3.02(e) of the Election Sign By-law states the following:

a) Separation Distance: There shall be a 1 metre separation distance between all election signs when placed in parallel. Where election signs are placed in series, there shall be a minimum of 5 metres separation between signs. Signs shall not be placed directly in front of other lawfully placed signs where the majority of the sign face is obstructed.

The Election Sign By-law (Download) states the following:

2.04 Terminology: No person shall falsely imply incumbency as a candidate who does not currently hold that same office. The following terms are hereby restricted for usage on election signs or political advertising, except where the defined criteria is met:

a) Incumbent shall only be used if the candidate holds the current office, regardless of whether the individual was appointed or elected.

b) Re-Elect shall only be used if the candidate holds the current office by election (not-appointment) and is seeking an additional consecutive term for the same office. This term shall not be used by candidates seeking election to a different ward divided seat or office on the Council or Local Board than the office they currently hold (Example: An incumbent Councillor for Ward 1, shall not use the term ‘re-elect’ if running for election to the same Council in Ward 2).

A copy of the Code of Conduct is available for download here.

The Clerk takes attendance at each Council meeting and it forms part of the minutes. The City does not keep a cumulative record of attendance. 

A copy of the current budget and business plan, including organization charts can be found on our Budget and Finance page.

The City has two main by-laws for levying water and wastewater fees.

By-law 2021-162 (download) is a by-law to regulate water and wastewater services, and is the by-law which sets out the rates for properties connected to the City’s water and/or sewer services.

By-law 2014-255 (download) is a by-law to require owners of buildings to connect such buildings to drinking water systems and/or wastewater collection systems in the City of Kawartha Lakes.  This by-law applies to property owners that have the ability to connect to the City’s water and/or sewer services, but currently use private systems.

It is difficult to quantify the tax levy increase to the average household. The impact will be different depending on which community you live in because of the area tax rates, and the change in your assessment from 2017 to 2018.

For households that are connected to both water and wastewater, the 2018 increase equates to approximately $44 per year.  As only the fixed component of the charge was changed in 2018, the increase will be the same for all households connected to both services.

The City does not have a credit rating. This would typically occur if the City was funding debt through the issuance of bonds.  The City is currently securing it’s debt funding through debentures.

Our total farm assessment is approximately $1.7 billion and it represents about 13% of our total assessment. 

The Provincial Offences division of the City is responsible for collecting the fines on behalf of the Province. All amounts collected are remitted to the Province. The remainder of the questions would be best answered by the Province, as it does not fall under the City’s responsibility.

Elections Ontario takes care of enumeration until the City receives the Voters’ List from them in August. If they are unable to verify that they are on the list at www.RegisterToVoteON.ca they can contact Elections Ontario at 1-866-242-3025.

www.VoterLookup.ca (operated by MPAC) was discontinued in 2024. Electors should contact Elections Ontario to search/add their name to the Voters’ List before September.

Yes, you will be receiving a list of electors in September.

As per the Municipal Election’s Act:

Copies for candidates

(4) On the written request of a certified candidate for an office, the clerk shall provide him or her with the part of the voters’ list that contains the names of the electors who are entitled to vote for that office. 1996, c. 32, Sched., s. 23 (4); 2016, c. 15, s. 17 (2).

Same

(5) The clerk shall not provide a copy of the voters’ list under subsection (3) or a part of the voters’ list under subsection (4) until September 1.

There are 4 things (3 on telephone) to enter to access your online ballot

a.    An 8 digit Elector ID number (Electors will receive 13 digits on their PIN letters, but only have to enter the last 8)

b.    A 6 digit PIN Number

c.    A 4 digit Year of Birth

d.    And a 6 or 7 character ‘captcha challenge’ (Internet only)

We have found that telephone voting requires about 10 minutes to vote if your ballot is only a Mayor/Councillor. About 15 minutes to vote if they are also electing a school board trustee (only applicable to French Language Electors, and Wards 1 and 4 English Public Electors). Telephone voting regularly requires the elector to enter the # symbol to confirm their vote, or hit the * button to go back in the voting process.

From the Kawartha Lakes Clerk’s Election Procedures: Candidates are prohibited from offering electronic equipment to electors to vote (ex. cell phone, tablet, laptop).

Here is the link to our interactive ward boundary map that you can use to move around and see all of the different wards and maps.

Yes you can get a copy of the specific wards; they are located on the on the ward boundaries page.

We aren’t aware of any maps that identify population density below a city-wide level.

The City’s interactive ward boundary map identifies the locations of some structures. However, the location of the structures are not likely congruent with population density.