Amendments to Lobbyists Registration Act to come into Force

OTTAWA, June 1, 2005 — The Honourable David L. Emerson, Minister of Industry, today announced that a stronger Lobbyists Registration Act will soon come into force. The Act's Regulations were published today in Part II of the Canada Gazette, fixing the date for coming into force of the Act and Regulations at June 20, 2005.

The Lobbyists Registration Act establishes the framework governing people who lobby the Government of Canada, either as paid consultants, or as employees of businesses or non-profit organizations.

The new legislation will ensure that Canada continues to have one of the most effective and transparent registration disclosure regimes in the world.

The amendments contain a clearer definition of lobbying. They streamline and strengthen the disclosure requirements for lobbyists by requiring that all lobbyists file a disclosure every six months. They also broaden the definition of lobbying by replacing the existing one (attempting to influence a public office holder) by a less subjective definition (communicating with a public office holder). Also, former public office holders who become paid lobbyists will have to disclose the positions they previously held with the federal government.

The revised Act contains stronger enforcement provisions, which require notification of the appropriate police authorities if the Registrar of Lobbyists, in conducting an investigation into an alleged breach of the Lobbyists' Code of Conduct, has reasonable grounds to believe that an offence has been committed.

Further information on the Lobbyists Registration Act, its Regulations and the Lobbyists' Code of Conduct is available online at http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/lobby

For further information, please contact:

Media Relations
Industry Canada
(613) 943-2502

Backgrounder
Amendments to the Amended Lobbyists Registration Act

Recent History of the Legislation

In 2001, the Lobbyists Registration Act (the Act) was the subject of a parliamentary review by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology. Subsequently, the Act was amended by Bill C-15, An Act to Amend the Lobbyists Registration Act, which received Royal Assent on June 11, 2003.

The amendments to the Act required consequential amendments to the Regulations to be drafted and approved before the Act could come into force. The draft amended Regulations were pre-published in Part I of the Canada Gazette on December 18, 2004. A 60-day public comment period started on the same date and ended on February 16, 2005. The Regulations essentially prescribe the format to be used by lobbyists when disclosing the required information.

Highlights of Amendments to the Act

The amended Act continues to focus on transparency by making more comprehensive information available to Canadians about lobbyists and what they do. It also keeps the current definitions of the three categories of lobbyists (consultant lobbyists, corporate lobbyists and lobbyists for non-profit organizations). But the Act also brings some significant changes.

The amended Act changes the definition of lobbying. Currently, lobbying takes place when a paid individual communicates, on behalf of any person or organization, with a public office holder "in an attempt to influence" the latter. The Act upon coming into force states that lobbying will now consist of "any oral or written communication made to a public office holder". In addition, the Act removes the exception for communications initiated by a public office holder. We expect that this definition will facilitate the enforcement of the Act, as it now rests on an objective criterion rather than on a person's intentions.

The amended Act allows an exclusion for "any oral or written communication made to a public office holder by an individual on behalf of any person or organization if the communication is restricted to a request for information." This will focus the application of the Act on the most significant communications with public office holders.

The amended Act will also require that former public office holders list their past employment with the federal government.

The amendments contained in the Act will also affect the registration of salaried lobbyists working for commercial corporations. Their registration requirements will become similar to those already in force for salaried lobbyists working for non-profit organizations. The responsibility for registration will rest with the most senior officer of the corporation. This officer will have to ensure that the corporation is registered if the time spent by its employees on lobbying activities collectively equals or exceeds 20 percent of one employee's time.

The most senior corporate officer (typically the chief executive officer), when registering, will have to list all of the corporation's senior employees who communicate with public office holders, plus all others who spend individually 20 percent or more of their time lobbying. The information will have to be updated every six months.

Under the new Act, consultant lobbyists — lobbyists who are paid on a contract basis to lobby on behalf of their clients — will also have to update their respective registrations every six months. This change is aimed at enhancing the quality of disclosures by making the information more current. With this change, all three categories of lobbyists will be required to update their registrations at least every six months.