A little history - History of the main legislative amendments

History

June 23, 1978

Coming into force of the provisions of Chapter VII of the Act respecting the 1978 elections in certain municipalities and amending the Cities and Towns Act regarding contributions and expenses. The application of this chapter was compulsory for municipalities of 100,000 inhabitants or more, and optional for municipalities of 20,000 to 100,000 inhabitants.

June 22, 1979

Following amendments to the 1978 Act, the provisions of Chapter VII of the Act respecting elections in certain municipalities applied obligatorily to municipalities of 20,000 inhabitants or more that held municipal elections in 1979.

June 18, 1980

The 1979 Act was amended, and the provisions of Chapter VII of the Act respecting elections in certain municipalities now applied to all municipalities in Québec having 20,000 inhabitants or more.

June 22, 1982

On June 23, 1982, the National Assembly unanimously adopted Bill 66, An Act to amend certain legislation concerning the financing of political parties and concerning municipal elections.

January 1, 1983

Coming into force of the Act respecting the integration of the administration of the electoral system, which transferred responsibility for the following three laws concerning political financing and the control of election expenses to the Directeur général des élections du Québec:

June 20, 1985

Bill 45, An Act to amend various legislation respecting municipalities,was assented to. The principal amendments concerned election expenses (authorized expenses and an increase in the expense limit for candidates to the office of mayor or councillor).

June 19, 1986

Bill 97, which increased an elector’s total contributions for a calendar year from $500 to $750, was assented to.

January 1, 1988

Coming into force of the Act respecting elections and referendums in municipalities (AERM), which repealed and replaced the Act respecting elections in certain municipalities. At the same time, the number of municipalities subject to Chapter XIII (Title I) of the Act decreased from 56 to 53.

April 15, 1990

Amendment of the first paragraph of section 47 of the AERM concerning the definition of an elector to read: "Every person of full age, being a Canadian citizen and being neither under curatorship nor under any voting disqualification pursuant to section 53 is an elector of a municipality upon fulfilling one of the following three conditions for at least 12 months:"

June 20, 1990

Coming into force of Bill 51, which amended section 146 of the Act respecting elections and referendums in municipalities by permitting a municipality having a population of 100,000 or over to allow double candidacies (co-candidates) by a by-law of its council.

September 1, 1998

The provisions of Chapter XIII (Title I) of the Act now applied to municipalities of 10,000 inhabitants or more. As a result, 61 new municipalities were governed by these provisions, for a total of 125.

June 19, 1999

The AERM was amended to increase the total contributions of an elector for the same calendar year to $1,000 for each of the authorized parties and independent candidates. In addition, the provisions of Chapter XIII (Title I) of the Act applied to all municipalities having between 5,000 and 10,000 inhabitants from September 1, 1999. Accordingly, 203 municipalities were subject to these provisions.

June 21, 2001

THE AERM was amended. It increased permitted election expenses by 20% and allowed all potential candidates to obtain authorization as of January 1 of the election year. It obliged all candidates who filed nomination papers to append documents indicating the amounts of $100 or more they obtained from electors and the breakdown of certain advertising expenses.

June 21, 2001

The Act respecting municipal territorial organization was amended. Any regional county municipality designated as a rural regional county municipality could, by by-law, order that the warden must be elected according to the provisions of the AERM. For the 2001 elections, two RCMs were affected by this amendment.

January 1, 2002

The number of municipalities governed by Chapter XIII decreased from 216 to 150 following the reorganizations.

December 19, 2002

The granting of the power to "rural" Regional County Municipalities (RCM) to have their reeve elected is now extended to all RCMs of Québec, except those located on the territory of the Montréal Urban Community.