Québec, June 21, 2010 –– Marcel Blanchet, Chief Electoral Officer of Québec, today announces the publication of the financial reports of Québec’s political parties for the  fiscal year ended on December 31, 2009. In accordance with the provisions of the Election Act, the deadline for filing financial reports for 2009 for political parties was April 30th of this year, whereas it was April 1st for authorities and other authorized entities.  The Chief Electoral Officer presents these reports in a document with over 900 pages which also contains information on the financial position of provincial political parties. To learn more about the financial reports, interested persons can consult the document entitled "Statistiques sur les rapports financiers des partis politiques," which is notably available on the website of the Chief Electoral Officer at www.electionsquebec.qc.ca.

The Financial reports present a portrait of the revenues and expenses of the year and the balance sheet of the authorized political parties on December 31, 2009. They also contain data on the results of the authorities (the organizations of the parties in the electoral divisions, the regions, or province-wide), as well as the lists, by party and by party authority, of the electors whose total contributions exceed $200.

A few highlights…

A review of the financial reports of Québec political parties for 2009 notably reveals that:

• During 2009, electors paid just over $11,500,000 in contributions to provincial political parties in Québec, as compared to $18 million in 2008, a general election year.  This represents a 36% decline.

• Thus, 49,061 electors made donations to parties, with the average contribution being $235. In 2008, 69,974 electors had made donations, with the average being $257 per contribution. For all of the authorized political entities, these contributions represented 68.3% of revenues in 2009 as compared with 54.6% in 2008.

• The net assets (net worth) of the Québec Liberal Party at the end of 2009 was $5,643,145, as compared to $1,210,786 for the Parti québécois, $54,409  for Québec solidaire, whereas the Action démocratique du Québec posted a deficit of $771,723.

• During the last fiscal year, the four parties represented at the Québec National Assembly accounted for 98.8% of the accumulated revenues and 98.6% of the expenses incurred by all of the political parties.

General Information

In 2009, the number of authorized parties reached 16. The Chief Electoral Officer granted an authorization to the Parti conservateur du Québec, the Parti de la réforme financière and the Parti nul whereas the Parti des immigrés du Québec, the Parti durable du Québec, the Parti république du Québec and the Union du centre saw their authorizations withdrawn. On December 31, 2009, the following political parties were authorized:

• Action démocratique du Québec
• Affiliation Québec
• Bloc pot
• Mouvement équité au Québec
• Parti conservateur du Québec
• Parti communiste du Québec
• Parti démocratie chrétienne du Québec
• Parti égalité /Equality Party
• Parti indépendantiste
• Parti libéral du Québec /Quebec Liberal Party
• Parti marxiste-léniniste du Québec
• Parti nul
• Parti de la réforme financière
• Parti québécois
• Parti vert du Québec /Green Party of Québec
• Québec solidaire

In all, 547 financial reports were expected for the 2009 fiscal year, whereas 542 authorized entities filed a financial report, namely:

• 17 out of 20 political parties (Affiliation Québec, Parti des immigrés du Québec and Parti république du Québec did not file their report);
• 520 out of 521 party authorities (the organizations of the parties in the electoral divisions, the regions, or province-wide);
• 1 authorized independent MNA
• 4 out of 5 authorized independent candidates.

In 2009, political parties and their authorities, as well as authorized independent MNAs and candidates, had total revenues of $16,909,846 and expenses that stood at $13,142,474.

Popular Financing and State Participation

One of the foundations of the system of political party financing is that only electors can make contributions. This does not rule out State participation, especially in the form of payments based on the number of votes received by each of the parties at the last general election.   Here is an overview of the public participation:

• contributions by electors totaled $1,547,061;
• in this respect, 31,210 electors made contributions of $200 or less to the various authorized entities;
• in all, 17,851 electors made contributions in excess of $200 and these contributions accounted for 79% of the money collected;
• the average contribution was $235, as compared to $257 in 2008;
• as for anonymous donations, they stood at $7,007, representing 0.06% of the total contributions.

To these sums must be added the financial participation of the State estimated at $10,361,423, of which $2,815,423 comes from the following amounts stipulated in the Election Act administered by the Chief Electoral Officer:

It should be noted that these figures are in addition to the tax credits granted by Revenu Québec for provincial political contributions. These credits can be estimated at about $7,546,000 based on the average credit paid from 1998 to 2001, the last four years during which this statistic was available.

Revenues and expenses

The financial reports of the four political parties represented at the National Assembly as well as those of their authorities reveal the following total revenues:

As for the expenses of these four political parties, the financial reports contain the following figures for:

The fiscal year ended on December 31, 2009 saw a surplus of revenue over expenses for 8 of the 15 political parties authorized on December 31, 2009 having filed a financial report. For all of the authorized entities, the surplus of expenses over revenues totaled $3,767,372 by taking into account the non-audited results of the party authorities and the authorized independent MNAs and candidates.

Here are the results for the four parties represented at the National Assembly and their authorities:

Cash Flows (Changes in cash position)

On December 31, 2008, the cash assets (cash on hand) of the 14 authorized political parties having filed a financial report, including the cash assets of their respective authorities, reached $2,932,353. As of December 31 2009, for the 15 parties having filed a financial report, these cash assets totaled $3,208,537. In this respect, here is the situation of the four parties represented at the National Assembly and their authorities:

Balance sheet

On December 31, 2009, the total net assets (net worth) of the four political parties represented at the National Assembly, together with that of their authorities, were as follows:

The Financial reports, like the document entitled Statistiques sur les rapports financiers des partis politiques, are available by contacting the Centre de renseignements of the Chief Electoral Officer at the following telephone number: 1 888 ELECTION. The text of the two documents is also available on the website of the Chief Electoral Officer at the following address: www.electionsquebec.qc.ca/