Madam Chair and members of the committee…
it's a great pleasure for me to be here today as part of the statutory review of the Lobbying Act. I want to share with you the Quebec experience with regard to the application of the Quebec Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Act.
Why have a lobbying act? The public's confidence in their public institutions is a major consideration in the practice of a healthy democracy and of good governance. Preserving that confidence was a major objective of the National Assembly in June 2002 when it unanimously enacted the Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Act.
Quebec's Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Act and the Canadian Lobbying Act have a number of features in common. However, there are certain notable differences.
The Quebec act defines the activity of lobbying as any oral or written communication in an attempt to influence a decision, while the Canadian act covers any communication with a public office holder.
The Quebec act covers a number of decisions that are not covered by the Canadian act, namely, the issue of certain authorizations, the appointment of members and administrators of government agencies and enterprises, as well as the appointment of senior officials such as deputy ministers and secretaries general of the Conseil executive and the Conseil du trésor.
In addition, the Québec act applies not only to parliamentary and governmental institutions, but also to all municipal and para-municipal institutions. It distinguishes between lobbyists on behalf of the profit-seeking enterprise and lobbyists on behalf of a non-profit organization. It does not require lobbyists to file monthly returns stating what communications they may have had with designated public office holders, as the Canadian act does. However, it provides that the registration must be updated as soon as a change occurs and must also be renewed every year.
The act provides that a lobbyist may request that the commissioner order that some or all of the information in a return be kept confidential when certain strict conditions are met. It assigns responsibility to the personal and movable real rights registrar who reports to the minister of justice, and not the commissioner, for keeping the registry of lobbyists. It provides that the commissioner may issue and publish notices concerning the carrying out, interpretation or application not only of the act, but also of a regulation thereunder or the Lobbyists' Code of Conduct.
The act also provides for the commissioner to adopt a code of conduct for lobbyists. Breach of the code is subject to sanctions and penalties.
Prohibitions on designated former public office holders engaging in lobbying may range from one year to two years according to the office formerly held. However, certain post-mandate rules apply to all former public office holders with no time limit.
The commissioner has the authority to carry out inspections, monitoring, audits and inquiries. For the purposes of his inquiries, the commissioner and any person he specially authorizes to conduct inquiries have the powers and immunity conferred on commissioners appointed under the Act respecting public inquiry commissions, except the power to order imprisonment. The commissioner therefore conducts his inquiries himself without transferring the case to a police service.
The act provides for three types of sanctions and penalties for breaches of the act or the code: penal sanctions; claiming compensation received by the lobbyist; and disciplinary measures that may be imposed by the commissioner if he ascertains a lobbyist has gravely or repeatedly breached the act or the code.
I would now like to share with you my thoughts on some issues that I think are important for attaining the act's transparency objectives and for ensuring that the act and the Lobbyists' Code of Conduct are respected.
The first point is the concept of significant part. Whereas consultant lobbyists are subject to the provisions of the act when they lobby on behalf of another person, enterprise lobbyists and organization lobbyists are subject to the act only when their job or their duties involve engaging in lobbying activities for a significant part of their time.
Determining what is a significant part means that when an enterprise or organization intends to instruct an internal person to lobby, it must ascertain whether communications for the purpose of influencing will be engaged in, based on the criteria of the notice issued by the commissioner.
This exercise is a complicated gymnastic feat for enterprises and organizations and for public office holders.
The concept of "significant part" may also result in problems of fairness and consistency.