The Quebec Liberal Party, which is struggling to mobilize donors, recently borrowed $4.7 million from its buildings to pay for its campaign costs, our Bureau of Investigations found.
Led by Dominique Anglade, the training took out a mortgage on two buildings it owns in Montreal and Quebec.
Dominic Anglade
Head of PLQ
Notably, on August 17, it borrowed $3.6 million from the National Bank, using the building that serves as its headquarters on Queen Street in downtown Montreal as collateral.
The building was previously debt free. The Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ) bought it for $3 million cash in 2015 after selling the former Waverly Street headquarters for more than $6 million.
During their Aug. 17 visit to the notary, the QLP also raised just over $1 million from a building on Wilfrid-Hamel Boulevard in Quebec City.
Photo Stevens Leblanc
The Quebec Liberal Party has also mortgaged another property it owns on Wilfrid Hamel Boulevard in Quebec City for $1.1 million.
On Monday, our investigative office revealed that the PLQ ranks last compared to the other four major parties in terms of popular funding.
For example, since the beginning of the year it has raised three times less than the Coalition Avenir Québec, about two times less than the Parti Québécois and Québec solidaire, and $200,000 less than the Quebec Conservative Party.
The PLQ, on the other hand, has the advantage of being able to borrow against its buildings to pay for food. It is the only one of the five major parties that claims to own buildings and land.
Julie Martel, Director General of the PLQ, assures that the training presented a plan to pay everything back “in less than 6 months”.
“We had to set up a payment option for the election campaign […] and we decided to use our buildings,” she explains in an interview.
Mrs. Martel takes the financial situation of her party “very seriously”.
“At the end of the day, I want my boss to have everything she needs to do the campaign she wants to do,” she promises.
“This is the first time I’ve heard that they’re going to mortgage real estate in Montreal to campaign,” notes Éric Montigny, a professor of political science at Laval University.
According to him, the PLQ has the advantage of being able to fall back on its “experienced people”.
Mr Montigny recalled that a party “can be refused its official accreditation if it does not pay its campaign debt in less than 120 days”. So this loan gives the PLQ additional leeway.
The PLQ is even opening the door to the sale of its buildings as part of post-pandemic teleworking in the medium term.
“After the next election there will be a reflection,” explains Mrs. Martel. If we sell the hotlines, we’ll have to move. »
- The chairman of the party’s board of directors admits that the difficult financial situation of the Liberal Party of Quebec can be felt in some local associations.
- “There are associations that rather than have $35,000 Where $40,000may have a little less,” agrees Julie Martel.
- “All of our candidates have their sign, their door hanger, everything they need,” she assures us, though.