The preamble to the Lobbying Act states that free and open access to government is an important matter of public interest, that lobbying public office holders is a legitimate activity, that it is desirable for public office holders and the public to be able to know who is engaged in lobbying activities, and that a system for the registration of paid lobbyists should not impede free and open access to government.
In 2008, substantive amendments to the Lobbyists Registration Act came into force; it was renamed the Lobbying Act because it now focused on regulating the activities of lobbyists rather than simply monitoring them through a registration system.
The following legislative amendments resulted from the adoption of the Lobbying Act:
- replacement of the position of Registrar of Lobbyists with that of Commissioner of Lobbying, an independent officer of Parliament, with expanded investigative powers and an education mandate;
- identification of a new category of public office holder within the federal government, called designated public office holder (DPOH), a key decision maker in government;
- imposition of a five-year post-employment prohibition on becoming a lobbyist once a DPOH has left office;
- new filing requirements for lobbyists and an obligation, when requested by the Commissioner of Lobbying, for DPOHs or former DPOHs to confirm information that is provided by lobbyists about communications with DPOHs;
- a ban on making or receiving any payment or other benefit that is contingent on the outcome of any consultant lobbyist’s activity; and
- extension from two to 10 years of the period during which infractions under the Lobbying Act and the Lobbyists’ Code of Conduct may be investigated and prosecution may be initiated.
In addition, the Lobbying Act provides that the Commissioner of Lobbying must develop a lobbyists’ code of conduct that sets out the ethical standards lobbyists must meet to preserve Canadians’ confidence in public institutions, the integrity of these institutions and their decision-making processes. Accordingly, this code complements the disclosure and registration requirements of the Lobbying Act. The current version of the code came into force on 1 July 2023.
The Lobbying Act also provides that the Act itself must undergo parliamentary review every five years. In 2012, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics completed the five-year statutory parliamentary review prescribed in the Lobbying Act. The committee tabled a report in the House of Commons, which contained 11 recommendations on amending the Act, but none of these recommendations resulted in legislative amendments. No further parliamentary reviews of the Lobbying Act have taken place since 2012. The Lobbying Act has not been amended in any significant way since it was enacted.
Read the full text of the HillStudy: The Lobbying Act and the Lobbyists’ Code of Conduct
By Alexandra Savoie and Maxime-Olivier Thibodeau, Library of Parliament