After months of heated denials, the federal Conservative party has quietly admitted it failed to publicly disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of donations.

That means at least three party members — including Prime Minister Stephen Harper — donated more than the legal limit last year.

Last Thursday, the party filed a revised financial report for 2005 with Elections Canada, acknowledging that it did not report delegate fees collected for its national convention that year as donations, contrary to political financing laws.

In the revised report, the Conservatives have "reclassified revenue related to the 2005 convention," disclosing an additional $539,915 in previously unreported donations, an extra $913,710 in "other revenue," and an additional $1.45 million in "other expenses."

The report does not explain what constitutes "other revenue" or "other expenses."

Moreover, the party reports almost $700,000 in previously undisclosed transfers from riding associations, presumably accounting for ridings that helped subsidize the cost of attending the Montreal policy convention for their delegates.

Having been forced to count convention fees as donations, the report indicates the Conservative party then discovered three delegates — including Harper — had exceeded their $5,400 annual limit for political contributions. As a result, the party refunded $456 each to Harper and the other two delegates.

The party has also been forced to send belated 2005 tax receipts to the roughly 3,000 delegates who attended the convention, with instructions on the complicated process required to retroactively claim the tax credit.

"The Conservative Party of Canada does not believe that delegate fees paid to cover the basic costs of a convention should be subsidized by taxpayers through the political tax credit system," says a letter accompanying the receipts.

"However, we have recently been advised that Elections Canada takes the position that the amount of a convention fee paid by a delegate, less the value of certain 'tangible benefits' received such as meals, are to be treated as a political contribution by that delegate."

Attempt to amend act fails in Commons

The party's letter notes that Harper's minority government last month attempted to amend the Canada Elections Act to ensure that convention fees in future would not count as donations. But the proposed amendment was shot down by the three opposition parties.

Harper spokesman Dimitris Soudas said that while the Conservative party continues to believe convention fees shouldn't be subsidized by taxpayers, it "has indicated from the beginning that it will comply with any requirements" imposed by Elections Canada, and it has filed the revised financial report "to reflect this decision."

But while the Tories imply that counting delegate fees as donations is a recent development, Elections Canada has said that's been the case for decades.

The Canadian Alliance, Reform and Progressive Conservative parties — the precursors to the Conservative party — all considered convention fees donations.

Opposition parties say the Conservatives are guilty of either gross ignorance or deliberately flouting the law.

"The reality is it sounds like they broke a lot of laws and they're going to have to be answering for that, no doubt about it," said Liberal MP Mark Holland, who added that the Tories are probably hoping nobody notices their admission over the holidays.

Holland said the financial report also leaves some important questions unanswered.

For instance, it doesn't mention the fact that the registration form for the convention invited outside observers — generally lobbyists and representatives of professional groups — to use their corporate credit cards to pay the $750 observer fee.

The Liberal party maintains such payments constitute corporate donations, which are strictly prohibited.

Moreover, Holland said the Liberals have identified roughly 200 Tories — not just the three disclosed in the revised report — who likely exceeded their annual donation limit after paying the convention fee. The regular fee was $600, though discounts were available to some.

Investigation of fees underway

Both the Liberals and NDP last summer asked Canada's elections commissioner to investigate the Tories' handling of the 2005 convention fees, alleging that the governing party violated the law.

A ruling on those complaints is expected early in the new year, though the fact that the Tories have now admitted their error and moved to correct the record could soften the blow.

Elections Canada posted the revised financial report on its website Friday. But an official said that doesn't mean the independent watchdog, which is still sifting through the new information, endorses the contents.

The controversy first arose by accident early last summer when Treasury Board President John Baird, the Tories' point man on cleaning up government, appeared before a Senate committee to defend the government's vaunted ethics legislation, the Federal Accountability Act.

At the time, the government was hoping to enact the new legislation, which includes reducing the annual political donation limit to $1,000 from $5,400, during the fall.

Liberals feared the act would mean anyone who had given more than $5 to the Liberals during 2006 would be unable to pay the $995 fee to attend their Dec. 2 leadership convention without exceeding the new donation limit.

Treasury Board president drew attention to fees

In the process of dismissing Liberal concerns, Baird insisted that convention fees did not count as donations and blurted out that the Tories did not report the fees to their 2005 convention as political contributions or issue any tax receipts for them.

When the Canadian Press first reported Baird's comments and the apparent breach of the law, Tory officials angrily insisted they'd "fully complied" with the law and that delegate fees could only be considered donations if the convention turned a profit.

The Tories persisted in this argument even after Elections Canada officials made it clear that profit had nothing to do with it and that the Tory interpretation of the law was incorrect.

"I can fax you scads of material on this. This is the way it's been done for time immemorial," Conservative party legal counsel, Paul Lepsoe, told CP last summer.

Holland said much of the Tories' mishandling of their 2005 convention fees appears to be the product of "complete ignorance" of the law.

"To me, that's just as scary [as deliberately breaking the law]. I mean, we have a Treasury Board president who doesn't even understand the laws he's attempting to rewrite. I mean, it's astounding. It's breathtaking."