OttawaA third-party audit ordered on appeal by a judge has found Coun. Shawn Menard under-reported the cost of signs for his 2022 municipal election campaign by about $300. City’s election compliance audit committee deemed probe unnecessary, but local developer appealedCBC News · Posted: Sep 09, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours agoA third-party audit ordered by a judge after the city’s election compliance audit committee declined to pursue the matter has found Capital ward Coun. Shawn Menard under-reported the value of re-used signs for his 2022 municipal election campaign by about $300. (Francis Ferland/CBC)A third-party audit ordered on appeal by a judge has found Coun. Shawn Menard under-reported the cost of signs for his 2022 municipal election campaign by about $300. The audit stemmed from a complaint by prominent local developer Ted Phillips. He complained Menard, who represents the central Capital ward, failed to report the full value of reused campaign signs. Menard called it a clerical error.Ottawa’s election compliance audit committee did not think there was enough evidence to pursue an audit, but Phillips successfully appealed to Superior Court in Ottawa. The city then hired Oxaro Inc. to carry out the audit back in April. Oxaro found Menard had failed to comply with the Municipal Elections Act because the amount he reported for the value of previous election campaign signs was inaccurate by $310.98. Read the full audit results here. The committee will discuss the audit findings Tuesday and decide whether any steps against Menard are necessary. “The comprehensive audit found what I had already previously publicly disclosed to the committee — that there was a clerical filing error,” Menard said Monday via email, adding that he would reserve further comment until Tuesday’s meeting. The city declined to provide the cost of the audit on Monday. A previous audit, into candidate Doug Thompson’s spending on election signs in 2022, cost $84,750.
Court-ordered audit finds $300 discrepancy in Shawn Menard’s election spending report
