Opposition councillors at Vancouver City Hall are calling for a ban on all union and corporate donations during the next civic election in 2008.

The move comes after Mayor Sam Sullivan drew the battle lines for the race on Monday, saying he expects to face a pro-CUPE candidate.

Vision Vancouver city councillor Heather Deal denies her party is trying to distance itself from the CUPE union.
(Vision Vancouver)

Vision Vancouver city councillor Heather Deal told CBC News Tuesday her party will bring a motion to the next regular council meeting scheduled on Oct. 31, asking that corporations and unions be banned from contributing to political organizations.

"We just feel that these large corporate donations and union donations in fact are getting so big that it's getting out of control in the City of Vancouver," she said.

"It's almost $3 million in the last election. It may top $3 million this time [so] it's time to get a rein on this," Deal said.

The party is still working out the details of the proposed changes, she said.

The 10-member city council consists of four members from Vision Vancouver, five from the ruling party, the Non-Partisan Association, and one from the Coalition of Progressive Electors.

The new rules proposed by Vision Vancouver would need the approval of the provincial government and an amendment to the Elections Act.

Vision Vancouver took more than $70,000 from CUPE during the 2005 election campaign, but Deal denies her party is now trying to distance itself from the union.
 
"That doesn't concern me one bit. It was four per cent of our budget," she said. "We've been very open about our budget; we've had corporate donations as well."

Sullivan took aim at CUPE on Tuesday, blaming union leaders for engineering the civic strike by city workers.

He also said one of the legacies of the strike will be a discussion about whether garbage collection should be contracted out.
 
"There was no conversation about it. There was no citizen interest in it. It's only as a result of this strike that we now have many citizens asking about it," Sullivan said.