Evidence of meeting #8 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was lobbyists.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:45 a.m.
Conservative
Kelly Block Conservative Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK
So we know that staying independent from government is something you take seriously, but what makes that possible within the act itself? What specifically do you rely on when it comes to keeping at arm's-length distance?
11:45 a.m.
Commissioner of Lobbying, Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying
In terms of the reporting, I report to Parliament through this committee, which I think is one of the ways.
11:45 a.m.
Conservative
Kelly Block Conservative Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK
Thank you.
I would like to share my time with Mrs. Davidson.
11:45 a.m.
Conservative
Patricia Davidson Conservative Sarnia—Lambton, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll echo my colleagues' comments and welcome you here this morning, and congratulate Mr. Leblanc again.
I certainly think the report you've given us has really outlined your accomplishments. So I congratulate you for those. When I see that you have verified over 1,000 pending registrations per month to deal with the backlog and to get things brought up to speed, I certainly think that's a huge accomplishment. So congratulations for doing that and for moving forward.
The one thing I would like you comment on is the following. It's my understanding that lobbying is a legitimate activity, but there are things that must be done to make it transparent. So if the lobbyists or individuals who are paid to lobby the public office holder must disclose the details of their activities—and I believe that's correct—how often do they have to do that?
11:45 a.m.
Commissioner of Lobbying, Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying
They need to file their initial registration. Once they have filed their initial registration, if they communicate with a designated public office holder then they have to file a monthly communication. They have 15 days in the next month to file the monthly communication. If they need to amend their registration or are terminating it, then again they have until the 15th of the next month to do so. If for some reason they have had a lot of communications, but no communications with the designated public officer holder, and there has been no need to amend the registration, then after five months the act still requires them to re-certify that everything is still correct in their registration.
11:45 a.m.
Conservative
Patricia Davidson Conservative Sarnia—Lambton, ON
You talked about the educational process and trying to get more information out so that people are aware of what's required of them under the act. How do you do that? Do you host seminars? I know you talked a bit about the web and that being one way to get good information out in an economical way.
11:50 a.m.
Commissioner of Lobbying, Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying
In terms of the lobbying community, we're communicating with them on a daily basis. The advisors who are answering the phone are not only providing technical support, but are also providing advice for those who have questions about the Lobbying Act. So providing advice is done on a daily basis.
I've also had meetings with particular groups of lobbyists, such as the Chamber of Commerce and the Government Relations Institute, to answer questions and to have a dialogue with them. I find that dialogue is sometimes one of the better ways of getting information across. Plus, there are a number of interpretation bulletins or advisory opinions that we issue.
People learn and need different things, so we're making an effort to produce written documents because people like to have those to take home. Now we have the code of conduct, and you can have it. I'd be pleased to send it to the committee if you are interested.
11:50 a.m.
Commissioner of Lobbying, Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying
Okay, we'll do that. We're quite proud of it actually. It's the first one we did as part of our marketing resources or outreach activities this year.
In terms of other groups, one of the things that I did last year was to get the word out to public office holders. As a group, if they understand the Lobbying Act, it helps them with their jobs. It's almost as if they're ambassadors as well, in terms of their communications. But also for designated public office holders in understanding their responsibilities for answering questions and verifying their communications logs when I ask them to....
This last year I met with the 20 most lobbied departments or deputy heads of the government institutions. I was pleased to find that all of them were well aware of the Lobbying Act, and some had put in place different practices for designated public office holders. One of the things that came out of those meetings was the need to create an orientation page that would go into binders. So we've been working on that with the different groups.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Judy Foote Liberal Random—Burin—St. George's, NL
Thank you.
I, too, want to thank you for appearing before the committee today.
I'm going to ask you to bear with me in the event you have answered my questions already in responding to some of my colleagues here.
I'm still trying to focus on, or get my head around, the public office holder. Does anyone who approaches a member of Parliament have to register their activity or register as a lobbyist if they're looking to access government funding?
11:50 a.m.
Commissioner of Lobbying, Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying
A member of Parliament is a public office holder.
11:50 a.m.
Commissioner of Lobbying, Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying
So if the individual is being paid to communicate with a public office holder—and, as I said, it could be for the making or development of a bill, proposal, or policy or program—and if it's for the awarding of a federal grant or financial contribution, that is something that's registerable. Also, for consultant lobbyists, arranging a meeting between a client and a public office holder is a registerable activity. As well, for consultant lobbyists, if they are trying to get a contract, that would be a registerable activity.
For consultant lobbyists, once they agree to the undertaking, they have 10 days to register. The 10 days are from when they agreed to do the undertaking, not 10 days from when they actually started doing the lobbying activity.
For in-house organizations and corporations, aside from the criteria I've just listed on communicating a registerable activity, there's also an additional requirement, which is that it must be a significant amount of time. It would be considered a significant amount of time if it were performed by just one person. In the interpretation bulletin, as Mr. Siksay was saying, that is defined as 20%.
11:50 a.m.
Commissioner of Lobbying, Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying
Well, it's a little more complicated than just a simple yes. If it were an in-house organization and they were paid and it were about communicating a registerable activity, they must also hit the significant amount of time to register.
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Judy Foote Liberal Random—Burin—St. George's, NL
All right.
What's the obligation on the part of the public office holder in terms of having been approached by someone looking to access government funding?
11:55 a.m.
Commissioner of Lobbying, Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying
The onus is on the lobbyists to ensure they comply with both the Lobbying Act and the lobbyists' code of conduct.
The only requirement for designated public office holders is that if I were to request that they verify a communication entry then they must respond to me.
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Judy Foote Liberal Random—Burin—St. George's, NL
So there's no obligation on behalf of the public office holder to report any activity of having been lobbied?
11:55 a.m.
Commissioner of Lobbying, Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying
Not under the Lobbying Act.
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Judy Foote Liberal Random—Burin—St. George's, NL
Okay.
I'm looking at the Lobbying Act and implementation notice number 5, which is “Communication with a Designated Public Office Holder”. Do you have the same type of communication for a public office holder?
11:55 a.m.
Commissioner of Lobbying, Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying
I don't have an interpretation bulletin specifically for a public office holder. Actually, there is one. It doesn't specifically say “public office holder”, but it is if you are communicating with a public office holder, which would include members of Parliament.
The one document that I think might be of interest, which my office is finalizing and that came from doing some of my outreach activities, is “The Ten Things You Should Know About Lobbying”. We thought that would be useful for parliamentarians. That's the document we're currently working on, which would hopefully be something like this that you can easily have.
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Judy Foote Liberal Random—Burin—St. George's, NL
Okay.
I want to go back to your monitoring requirement. You have 25 full-time employees, and you say there's a substantial amount of monitoring taking place through your office. How does that break down in terms of the 25 full-time employees, given the work you're expected to do under the act? Is there a percentage of how many of those employees would be engaged in monitoring activities?
April 20th, 2010 / 11:55 a.m.
Commissioner of Lobbying, Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying
Well, right now I have 25 full-time employees, but I have three staffing actions, so we hopefully will have 28 in the near future.
In terms of monitoring activities, almost 30% of my budget, that is of the FTE count--sorry, person, easy on the bureaucratic terms--is involved in doing some kind of compliance work. With respect to the monitoring specifically, we have one officer dedicated to that.
