Ontario Liberal Party Excludes Low-Income Supporters Despite a Cost-of-Living Crisis
Yesterday the Ontario Liberal Party opened up registration for its upcoming Annual General Meeting taking place in London, Ontario this September. It will be just the second AGM I haven’t had a hand in delivering in 12 years. However, one amendment I submitted at the last AGM will impact who is able to attend this event — or at least it was supposed to.
Back in 2023, I submitted two constitutional amendments aimed at opening up the Ontario Liberal Party into the most welcoming political movement in Canada. The first was to combat harassment in the party and improve accountability measures related to it. The second was to create a new discounted registration rate for low-income supporters. Both passed and you can read about the rationale of both amendments here.
To open up registration, the party sent out an email letting supporters know what they could expect at the upcoming AGM. This included the usual networking opportunities, election readiness training, policy workshops, the ability to vote on constitutional changes, and elect the next Executive Council. The last three are a supporter’s opportunity to help shape the direction of the party as it heads towards an election — but only if they pay the registration fee and attend this event.
The 2024 AGM Registration Fee Structure
Then I saw the list of registration fees the email redirects to on the party’s website. The now-constitutionally required existence of a low-income rate was included in the list alongside special rates for seniors, youths, and students. All four of these rate categories are constitutionally required to be priced at a dollar amount that is no higher than two-thirds the cost of the regular registration fee. And that’s where the problems begin.
If the two-thirds constitutional requirement was followed for the early-bird rate, the low-income rate would be about $10 less expensive than presented. That might not sound like a lot but we’re in tough economic times and registration is not the only cost to attendees for this event. Out of town registrants will also have to cover the cost of transportation and accommodations. The lowest price listed as part of the hotel room block is $165/night (not bad but still an additional cost to cover).
To be fair to the Executive Council that set the AGM rates, they did follow the two-thirds requirement for the full rate after the early-bird window ends. At that point, the regular rate will go up to $450 dollars. And to their credit, they didn’t increase the post early-bird rate for low-income registrants. The $225 fee will remain at that rate up until the convention. However, even after the early-bird window wraps, the low-income rate will still be the third most expensive rate offered.
The Rationale Behind How Registration Fees are Set
There are two reasons to set a lower rate for a specific type of registrant. One is for reasons of inclusion and one is for reasons of recognition. The first is offered because the circumstances that group experiences in their day-to-day lives suggest they might need some assistance to make attending the AGM financially feasible. The second is offered because the people in a given group are seen as deserving of a break on fees due to their contributions to the party. The argument is that seniors, youths, and students all fall into the former while consistent monthly donors fall into the latter.
But this fee structure doesn’t actually serve these goals. The special monthly donor rate, meant to entice new people to sign up as consistent donors, has not been extended to existing monthly donors, thereby negating the special recognition argument. Meanwhile, the assumption that seniors, youths, and students are all financially struggling simply isn’t true. In which case making the low-income rate the most generous makes the most sense from an inclusionary perspective.
Instead the low-income rate is the most expensive of the discounted early-bird rates. The early-bird rate structure means a low-income party member could be forced to pay 15% more on their registration fee than a wealthy senior. Or 114% more than youth from a wealthy family. Or 150% more than a student who, despite having some heavy expenses, may still be quite well-off financially.
How the Rate Impacts Low-Income Supporters
While most middle-class individuals and families are struggling economically right now, low-income individuals are struggling even more. Social assistance hasn’t kept up with inflation or increases in prices on key living costs like shelter and food. So it’s worth doing the math on what this so-called low-income rate would mean to someone on the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) or Ontario Works (OW).
The most an individual can currently receive under ODSP is $1,308 per month. That means the low-income registration fee would use up 17% of that supporter’s monthly income. The most an individual can currently receive under OW is $733 per month. That means the low-income registration fee would use up almost $31% of that supporter’s monthly income.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. There’s nothing in the constitution preventing the Executive Council from reducing the low-income rate below the two-thirds requirement. That element creates a fee ceiling, not a floor. In fact, the only reason it’s still included in that section of the constitution today was to ensure that the amendment creating a low-income rate would be passed on the floor of the constitutional amendments session in 2023.
When I first proposed the low-income fee amendment, I had to balance what I thought the party should do versus what I thought could actually get passed. The two-thirds requirement was actually a relic from previous versions of that section of the party’s constitution. Keeping the changes to this section of the constitution to a minimum made it more likely that the amendment would be passed without changes. So the two-thirds requirement remained.
But as I said before, that requirement is a ceiling, not a floor. When I proposed the amendment, it was only after years of pitching the idea to members of the Executive as something they could proactively do to show how inclusive the party could be. Now that they are required to offer the reduced rate, it’s still within their power to drop it much lower and recoup the costs elsewhere. Even with the rate already published, there is still time to do the right thing and reduce it retroactively.
Off-Setting the Costs of the Low-Income Rate
After spending a decade helping the party pull off each of its conventions, I am very familiar with the fact that it makes no money on these events. The goal is always simply to break even if possible. The way registration fees are set are a direct reflection of this reality. But paying attention to the cash-strapped party’s bottom line doesn’t mean we can’t do better on the low-income fee.
First, we can ask those in the party who are doing well to do more by paying a higher registration fee. Rather than try to ensure we create the most affordable rate for all attendees, we should welcome the idea of charging the full per-person cost of the event to registrants who can afford to pay it. Subsidizing supporters who don’t need the help just puts the party’s finances in jeopardy and ensures we keep out other voices that could be valuable participants if money wasn’t a barrier.
Second, we can explore more creative options to covering the per-person cost of low-income supporters. One idea I’ve raised for years is to create a ‘donate a registration’ option where supporters who can easily afford to attend a convention directly sponsor those who can’t. This works much like the Neapolitan tradition of buying one coffee but paying for two so that someone in need can receive one at a future date. It’s known as a ‘caffè sospeso’ or suspended coffee. The purchaser never learns the identity of the person who will benefit, or vice-versa. Similarly, the ‘donate a registration’ process can be anonymous to all but the party staff to protect the dignity of attendees.
This isn’t unheard of in the party’s history. Some riding associations and more established members still cover the cost of hotel accommodations and transportation for low-income members or youths attending AGMs. This would be the same principle, just formalized for better coordination and wider access.
Another option would be to create a special inclusionary donor stream where donations to the fund are ear-marked specifically for ensuring better access to party events by low-income supporters. The fund could be built up year-round and be applied to the registrations of all supporters looking to make use of a low-income rate.
Given all the additional costs associated with attending a party convention, there is a strong case to be made to simply make the low-income rate free and fill the financial gap in other ways. The fact that the party seems to have explored none of these options and set the low-income rate higher than the others suggests our current decision-makers simply aren’t interested.
The Message this Sends to Voters
Setting the low-income fee so high, especially in comparison to the other rates on offer, sends a clear signal to Ontarians who are struggling financially that they shouldn’t bother getting involved in our party. That would be a exclusionary message to send in general but it’s especially foolish during a cost-of-living crisis. There is no better focus group for the times we live in than those truly struggling to get by. But they can’t provide their insights if they aren’t invited to the table.
Even if most people were economically thriving, this would still be a poor approach to party building. The party has been routed in back-to-back elections. We lack volunteers, donors, and came up short by about a million voters during both of the last two campaigns. The last thing we should be doing is telling around ten percent of the people of this province they are not welcome in our movement.
The email that announced the registration rates explained that one of the benefits of attending an AGM was the opportunity “to have your voice heard and contribute to the future direction of the Ontario Liberal Party”. Based on how the rates were set, it seems clear that only some voices are actually welcome.
Dalton McGuinty once said in a pre-election campaign meeting that if you can’t get the small things right, why should anyone trust you with government? The party has an opportunity here to show it’s listening, changing, and ready to deliver better. That must start now.
Theresa has served as the Communications Coordinator for the Ontario Liberal Party, the VP Communications for the Ontario Women’s Liberal Commission, the Director of Communications to Ontario Deputy Premier Deb Matthews, and an election-speechwriter for former Premier Kathleen Wynne. As a member of ‘Team Neutral’, she helped manage the 2013 and 2020 OLP Leadership races.
