West Vancouver mayor facing probe for election ‘spending irregularities’

West Vancouver Mayor Mark Sager is facing a police investigation, Global News has learned.

“I can confirm we are conducting an investigation on behalf of Elections BC,” Port Moody Police spokesperson Const. Sam Zacharias told Global News.

Elections BC has also confirmed the investigation.

“We identified potential spending irregularities during a compliance review of Mark Sager’s campaign financing disclosure statement for the 2022 General Local Elections,” the non-partisan organization said in a statement.

Global News spoke with Sager on Thursday.

“At the end of the election, my campaign was left with some leftover funds not needed for the election period,” he said.

“I phoned up and checked with Elections BC. Very nice gentleman (I spoke with) and I (asked if) I could use the money to redo the mayor’s office and he said ‘certainly.'”

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Elections BC noted that it initially asked the RCMP to investigate, before the file was forwarded to Port Moody Police.

“I wouldn’t have spent a dime without Elections BC’s prior approval,” Sager said.

“I called them back in November 2022 and asked if I was allowed to spend money in this way and they said, ‘yes.’ This is all news to me.”

Political scientist Hamish Telford said Elections BC needs to audit election campaigns and that if there are sums of money unaccounted for, “that’s a problem.”

The Elections Act states that “If the surplus is $500 or more, the financial agent must pay the total amount of the surplus campaign funds …to the jurisdiction in which the candidates’ election was held.”

Additionally, the jurisdiction will hold the funds plus the accumulated interest in trust.

“All of the expenses from all of the contributions that you’ve raised have to be spent during the election campaign on expenses related to the election,” Telford said.

Details of the alleged spending irregularities are not being released.

The BC Prosecution Service would neither confirm nor deny any police investigation or the appointment of a special prosecutor.

Earlier this year, Sager was issued a $200 dollar fine for failing to include an authorization statement on election campaign materials.

Sager was also issued a citation from the Law Society of B.C. alleging misconduct in the preparation of a former client’s will.