Information & Ethics Committee on May 7th, 2026

[Nancy Bélanger]

Designated public office holders include members of Parliament. If a lobbyist meets with you and talks to you at a pre-arranged meeting, they have a duty to prepare a monthly communication report indicating that they have met with you.

You, as members of Parliament, don't have the same obligation, unless I call you to verify the content of the lobbyist's report.

Members of Parliament have the same obligation as ministers. All designated public office holders who meet with lobbyists must answer me when I call them to confirm the content of the lobbyist's report.

Otherwise, they have no obligation except to avoid lobbying for five years after leaving their position.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lévis—Lotbinière, QC]

Thank you, Ms. Bélanger.

I'll go back to 2024. We knew that the current Prime Minister was working as a special adviser to the Liberal government. He was still a vice-president of Brookfield at the same time.

I don't know whether he was registered as a lobbyist. If the answer is yes, all the better or too bad. If the answer is no, he had access to the Prime Minister, the Clerk of the Privy Council and members of the Privy Council. It was a murky area. That worries me a bit.

You talked a lot about transparency and ethics. In that case, is there a way to check the registry of lobbyists to see if he was registered?

[Nancy Bélanger]

Yes, certainly, you can check the registry to see if he was.

There are a lot of criteria for being put on the registry. Again, these are some of the things that need to be addressed in the review of the act. You have to be paid and make representations to a public office holder on behalf of a client or on behalf of their employer. If those criteria are not met, the Lobbying Act does not apply.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lévis—Lotbinière, QC]

We also know that on May 6, 2025, the Prime Minister met with Sam Pollock, the CEO of Brookfield Infrastructure. That was his former employer, directly or indirectly. I don't think he was registered as a lobbyist. Apart from the usual salutations, they might have discussed a few little policies.

How can we know, as gatekeepers of transparency?

[Nancy Bélanger]

Again, if there are allegations of lobbying, I can look into it. However, I have no power to say that someone broke the law. I have to refer the matter to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

You can make access to information requests to find out if there is a record of a meeting and to find out what was discussed. That's the other way to do it, by making an access to information request.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lévis—Lotbinière, QC]

Between you and me, we know that a meeting can often last seven or eight minutes. While taking a walk, people can talk or have big discussions, but there will never be a record of it. We are still very limited. The reality is that we can get around our obligations toward lobbying and transparency.

[Nancy Bélanger]

I absolutely agree that transparency is important. That's why I made some recommendations to broaden the obligations and transparency for meetings that are unplanned. Whether they take place in the street, on a street corner or at an airport, those meetings should be recorded in the registry. I agree with you.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lévis—Lotbinière, QC]

Thank you, Ms. Bélanger.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Linda Lapointe]

Thank you, Mr. Gourde.

Mr. Chang, you have the floor.

[Wade Chang, Liberal, Burnaby Central, BC]

Thank you, Commissioner, for being here with us.

I noticed that indigenous contracting results were 9.7% in 2023-24 and 3.4% in 2024-25, with a forecast of 9.2% for 2025-26 and a target of 5% for 2026-27.

Can you tell us more about these figures and what is driving the changes?

[Nancy Bélanger]

The way the policy of the Treasury Board works is that we have been assigned a target of 5%. I don't get to pick that. That's the target. It's 5% of the contracts that we award. It's not contracts that we've paid.

If in a certain year we have a contract that's for three years, it's the year it is awarded. Then in year two and year three, the numbers go down, because it's not the year that we awarded it, which is why it fluctuates so much.

We had targeted last year.... I think it's 9% that you said. I think we'll meet 12%, because we were in the cycle of having to buy new laptops, and we bought them from an indigenous company, so we will meet 12%.

We don't do a lot of contracts. I have no money. We do just a little bit. We always try to prioritize indigenous groups. We will likely do an evaluation this year, so we'll see if we can get an indigenous company, but the 5% is the target that's given to us.

[Wade Chang, Liberal, Burnaby Central, BC]

Thank you very much for your effort.

Under government-wide priorities, can you speak to the programs that your office is undertaking in relation to the United Nations 2030 agenda for sustainable development?

[Nancy Bélanger]

What we do there is co-operate at the national level. We have a network of colleagues who do the same type of work as I do.

Also, the OECD often invites me to participate in work there, and Canada is seen as a leader, as one of the countries with the longest-standing laws on lobbying. That's how I contribute to them.

[Wade Chang, Liberal, Burnaby Central, BC]

Thank you.

Your departmental plan places significant emphasis on education and outreach. How important is proactive education in improving compliance with the Lobbying Act, particularly for smaller organizations, non-profits or individuals who might not fully understand the obligations?

[Nancy Bélanger]

I think it's paramount. The Lobbying Act is extremely complicated. It has a lot of nuance. It's difficult for people to read and understand, so we do a lot of outreach. We highly recommend that people call us.

We've done almost 200 sessions in the past year. We do advertise a lot, and we're proactively telling people to come and meet the commissioner. I do one-hour sessions with people, and I've been able to meet over 2,000 people from across the country. It is absolutely key.

[Wade Chang, Liberal, Burnaby Central, BC]

Thank you.

One of the themes in your recommendations is improving the timeliness and consistency of registration and disclosures.

From your perspective, how can we modernize reporting requirements in a way that improves transparency without creating unnecessary administrative burden, especially for smaller stakeholders?

[Nancy Bélanger]

Every time I hear the word “burden”, I.... There has been no evidence that there's a burden to going in the registry. Creating an account takes five minutes, and inputting the information takes 20 to 25 minutes. There is no burden in the registration.

The burden is in trying to figure out if you should register and what kind of information you need to put in the registry, because depending on who you are, the information.... It always depends. It depends on who you are, and it depends on whether you work for an organization or a corporation.

The challenge, and what I think we have to do, is to simplify the act, which is what my recommendations are all about. If that is simplified, it will be very easy for people to go on the registry, to just go in, open an account and put in the information.

[Wade Chang, Liberal, Burnaby Central, BC]

Is that why education is way more important?

[Nancy Bélanger]

Education is important now because the law is so complicated. If it were simpler, we would be able to support people in actually registering a lot more easily, but right now, people need to figure out if they are even subject to the Lobbying Act.

[Wade Chang, Liberal, Burnaby Central, BC]

Thank you.

My final question is this. Recommendation six proposes broader disclosure requirements regarding employees who lobby on behalf of organizations. Can you elaborate more on how that recommendation would improve transparency for Canadians while still remaining practical for businesses and organizations to implement?

[Nancy Bélanger]

Right now organizations have to list every single employee who lobbies, but corporations only have to put in the senior officers and employees who lobby as more than a significant part of their work. That means there are people in corporations right now who do not have to put their name in the registry, and if their name is not in the registry, then they're not subject to the code.

I just want.... If you work for an organization or corporation, everyone's name should be in the registry. It's adding names.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Linda Lapointe]

Thank you.

Mr. Ho, you have the floor for two minutes.

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

As the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying, does your office have the authority to proactively investigate potential undisclosed lobbying, or are you limited to acting when formal complaints are filed?

[Nancy Bélanger]

No, I have absolute discretion. I can tell you that for most files that we open, it's because we've observed something or seen something. I don't need to get an allegation.

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

Based on the resources you have—you said you have 35 staff and a $6.1-million operating budget—how much undisclosed lobbying activity do you think goes on undetected?