Prime Minister Justin Trudeau makes his way into the West Block on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on June 21.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Lobbying of the Prime Minister’s Office – including Justin Trudeau personally – saw a 43-per-cent increase last year, part of an all-time lobbying high in Ottawa, monitoring by the watchdog shows.
Lobbying Commissioner Nancy Bélanger reported a record amount of federal lobbying last year, with a 19-per-cent increase compared with the previous year in interactions between lobbyists and federal targets, including the Prime Minister and his staff, ministers and MPs.
The Prime Minister’s Office was lobbied 1,602 times, including with Mr. Trudeau present, compared with 1,117 times the previous year. Mr. Trudeau communicated with lobbyists alone on 56 occasions, according to the Commissioner’s annual report.
The figures, in her annual report, reflect a concentration of decision-making power on key issues in the Prime Minister’s Office.
“We’ve seen a steady increase in all reported lobbying activities at the federal level,” Ms. Bélanger said. “Despite this increase, there continues to be a need to improve the Lobbying Act to enhance the transparency, fairness, clarity and efficiency of the federal lobbying regime.”
Almost 8,500 lobbyists – including 2,823 employed by corporations – registered to ply their trade in Ottawa. They lobbied not just the Prime Minister, but ministers, deputy ministers, associate deputy ministers and assistant deputy ministers who work on policy and legislation.
Last year, lobbyists communicated with senators 1,421 times, a 53-per-cent increase on the previous year. Lobbyists communicated with MPs from all parties 11,511 times.
The Commissioner’s report is based on the fiscal year, which runs from April to March.
A new code of conduct for lobbyists comes into force on Saturday, tightening the rules on the amount of gifts and hospitality lobbyists can give elected and appointed federal officials. The new code will also mean lobbying organizations paying for flights or hotels for MPs and other federal officials – including for visits abroad – will not be able to engage in lobbying for some time, as they will now be considered gifts.
Megan Buttle, president of the Government Relations Institute of Canada, said lobbyists were concerned by the changes in the code covering sponsored travel.
“This previously allowable activity has been an important activity to expanding parliamentarians’ understanding and exposure to the downstream, real impacts the policies they help create and influence have in people’s lives outside of Ottawa,” she said.
Lobbyists have to file a return with the Commissioner’s Office when they communicate with a public office holder.
There was a 19-per-cent increase in interactions with public officials registered with the lobbying watchdog last year, with a record 30,681 communications logged.
The top issues discussed at meetings were the environment, economic development, energy, industry and health, the register says. Lobbyists are not required to summarize precisely what was discussed at meetings or in phone calls.
In the past year, 3,460 organizations registered to lobby and 2,165 paid at least one professional consultant to lobby on their behalf.
Duff Conacher of Democracy Watch said he was not surprised by the rise in registered lobbyists or lobbying because there have been “significant changes in several policy areas.”
Last year, the Commissioner referred one case of a lobbyist breaching the rules to the RCMP. Her annual report also said that in September, 2022, the RCMP charged MarineLand’s lawyer Andrew Burns under the Lobbying Act “resulting from unregistered lobbying activities he allegedly conducted on behalf of Marine Land Canada” over a bill that ended the captivity of whales and dolphins in Canada. The charge followed a referral to the RCMP by the Lobbying Commissioner in 2018.
In an interview with The Globe earlier this month, Ms. Bélanger said an update of the Lobbying Act is overdue, including to give her office more discretion over sanctions, with a sliding scale based on the severity of breaches of the act. Currently, she has to refer people to the RCMP if they breach the act. But she said fines or other penalties, such as the requirement to undergo training on registration requirements, might be more appropriate in some cases.
Ms. Bélanger said that lobbying of ministers, MPs and federal officials is going unchecked and unnoticed under the current rules. She wants Parliament to close loopholes allowing unregistered lobbying of the federal government, including at the counters of Ottawa coffee shops.
Currently, only prescheduled meetings are required to be reported, not informal mixing on Parliament Hill in cafés, bars and restaurants, and chance encounters on the way to meetings.
Ms. Buttle said she was not surprised to see the rise in the reporting of lobbying activities.
“The government has set out an ambitious policy agenda and as a result, requires a lot of consultation and engagement with a variety of diverse voices and perspectives from across the country,” she said.