Question Period Note: The Lobbying Act

In June 2021, ETHI recommended that the Government introduce legislative changes to the Lobbying Act. The Lobbying Act is required to be reviewed every five years and the last review was conducted in 2012.

•The Government is committed to ensuring that the lobbying of federal office holders is conducted with the highest standards of integrity.
•Lobbying is a legitimate part of our democratic system. The law recognizes the importance of free and open access to government and the need for Canadians to be able to know who is lobbying their government.
•We welcome opportunities to further the Lobbying Act’s transparency and accountability objectives.

The purpose of the Lobbying Act is to ensure transparency and accountability in lobbying. The Act requires lobbyists to register and file returns on their communications with public office holders, which are published in the Registry of Lobbyists. Although the Act does not assign responsibilities to a specific Minister, the President of the Treasury Board has been deemed as the minister responsible for the Conflict of Interest Act.

The Lobbying Act is based on four key principles:
•Free and open access to government is an important matter of public interest.
•Lobbying public office holders is a legitimate activity.
•It is desirable that public office holders and the general public be able to know who is engaged in lobbying activities.
•The system of registration of paid lobbyists should not impede free and open access to government.

The Commissioner of Lobbying administers the Lobbying Act and develops the Lobbyists’ Code of Conduct, which governs the ethical conduct of lobbyists. The Commissioner is an independent agent of Parliament. Agents of Parliament operate at arms-length from the Government by carrying out duties assigned by statute and reporting directly to Parliament. On December 30, 2017, Nancy Bélanger was appointed to serve as the second Commissioner of Lobbying, for a seven-year term.

In 1989, the first federal lobbying law, the Lobbyists Registration Act, came into force. In 2008, the law was renamed the Lobbying Act and received several major amendments, including a five-year post-employment lobbying ban for certain senior public office holders.

The Lobbying Act requires a statutory review every five years by a parliamentary committee. In 2012, the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics (ETHI) completed the first statutory review of the Act. ETHI noted that the Act is generally working well in accordance with its objectives but recommended some changes to the law. These recommendations included changes to lobbyists’ returns, banning the receipt of gifts from lobbyists, and adding administrative monetary penalties to the Act. No changes to the Act were made.

Over the past year, a series of recommendations have been made to improve the Lobbying Act. First, in February 2021, the Lobbying Commissioner submitted 11 preliminary recommendations in response to a November 2020 request from ETHI. These were based on the experience of the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying administering the federal lobbying regime as well as the experience of provincial, territorial and municipal regimes.

Second, on June 10th, 2021, ETHI tabled a report entitled “Questions of Conflict of Interest and Lobbying in Relation to Pandemic Spending”. The report offered 23 recommendations regarding: the federal conflict of interest and lobbying regimes; accountability to Parliament; Government contribution agreements and contracts with the WE group; ensuring that processes for entering into contribution agreements or contracts are fair, transparent, and comply with the Official Languages Act; volunteer programs; and the use of new technologies that may have privacy implications.

Among these recommendations, ETHI recommended that “the Government of Canada introduce legislative changes to the Lobbying Act to give the Commissioner of Lobbying real powers to investigate, issue fines and impose lobbying bans to those who disregard the Act”. In its dissenting opinion, the Liberal Party of Canada recommended that ETHI conduct “at the earliest opportunity, a full statutory review of the Lobbying Act with appropriate recommendations”. Pursuant to Standing Order 109, ETHI requested that the Government provide a comprehensive response to its report, which would have been due within 120 days.

On August 15th, 2021, Parliament was dissolved. Dissolution of Parliament immediately puts an end to the requirement to respond to House of Commons committee reports. ETHI can, however, still issue a new request for the Government to respond to its report. If ETHI issues such a request, the Government would be required to table a response within 120 days, pursuant to Standing Order 109.

Section 14.1(1) of the Lobbying Act requires that the Act be reviewed by a Parliamentary Committee every five years. The last review of the Act was conducted in 2012. The June 2021 report issued by ETHI is not deemed a formal review of the Lobbying Act.

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