Wildrose calls on Tories to return the money

The leader of the Wildrose party is accusing the Redford Tories of accepting political contributions from Calgary Laboratory Services, which is operated by Alberta Health Services.

Under the Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act, such a donation is both illegal to give and accept.

Wildrose leader Danielle Smith tells 660News, the governing Progressive Conservatives have to stop taking cash from goverment funded agencies.

"Come clean on the illegal donations and refund every last dollar back to the agency, because this is taxpayer dollars," says Smith.  "Taxpayer dollars should not be going to fund political parties at all. We suspect that hundreds of thousands -- if not millions of taxpayer dollars -- have been funnelled through all of these different government-funded agencies and gone back into PC coffers.  That money has to be returned."

"We have seen hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars, if not millions of taxpayer dollars, being funnelled through these different agencies and coming back into PC party coffers to fund their next election campaign, to fund their campaign war chest," Smith continues. "This is why it's illegal.  This is why it's the PC party to blame.  And they should return every single dollar."

The Chief Electoral Officer is already investigating dealings between the Tories and 10 contingency associations in the province.  The Wildrose is asking that the probe be expanded.