MLA fined by Elections BC for 2024 advertising violations

DAWSON CREEK, B.C. — The MLA for Peace River South has been fined by Elections B.C. (EBC) for issues related to his advertising during the last provincial election.

On Wednesday, October 8th, EBC announced four administrative penalties that had been issued, including a $200 fine to Larry Neufeld, who was elected as Peace River South MLA in the 2024 provincial general election.

According to the email, Neufeld was fined for sponsoring election advertising without an authorization statement.

An enforcement notice issued to Neufeld on October 7th indicates Elections BC received a number of complaints over the course of the election’s campaign period regarding various advertisements that didn’t include the required authorization statements.

As per a summary available on the EBC website, authorization statements need to identify the sponsor of the advertisement, indicate the sponsor is registered and include their contact information.

According to the enforcement notice, EBC initially received a complaint related to a “professionally-made” video about local agriculture posted to the campaigns’ X — formerly Twitter — account on September 28th, 2024. EBC also received one complaint about a campaign sign.

When the agency contacted Neufeld’s financial agent — his wife Tammy — on October 4th, 2024, it was told the video would be updated, and evidence was shown to EBC that the sign had been changed with the correct statement.

However, a few days later on October 8th, 2024 EBC was informed the agriculture video was still up and unchanged. The agency contacted Neufeld’s financial agent, and the video was taken down, corrected and re-uploaded that same day.

More than a year later on October 11th, 2025, EBC contacted Neufeld’s agent again regarding another video posted to the X account on September 28th, 2024 that also lacked a proper authorization statement.

Neufeld’s agent responded on October 15th, 2025 that the video had been removed and reuploaded with the required information, which EBC reportedly verified.

EBC sent Neufeld and his agent a notice of investigation on July 24th, 2025, and his agent replied on August 12th saying the advertisements were paid for by the campaign, the campaign acted in good faith and its approval process was “multi-tiered.”

On August 29th, 2025, Neufeld’s agent contacted EBC saying the campaign sign had been changed as soon as the agency had contacted them. They provided copies of a $1,000 gift certificate for services from a video production company and an invoice from a printing company for corrugated signs, charging $56 per sign.

In early September, they reached out again, providing a receipt for the construction components of a campaign sign, totalling $270.24.

The investigation reportedly found no evidence of intentionally breaking the rules. 

As such, and because Neufeld’s team made the necessary changes when notified, cooperated with the investigation and had never received a fine under the Elections Act previously, EBC director of investigations Adam Barnes chose to fine Neufeld just $200 — well below the $10,000 maximum penalty.

Energeticcity.ca contacted Neufeld for a statement regarding the penalty and did not immediately receive a response. This story will be updated with new information as it becomes available.

To view the full enforcement notice, look below.