complaint<\/a> before the federal Information Commissioner.\u00a0<\/p>\nChristopher Cotton, a professor of economics and lobbying researcher at Queen\u2019s University, says there is inadequate transparency around lobbying violations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a system where lobbying rules violation allegations raised by the Commissioner of Lobbying are often placed into a bureaucratic black hole and never acted upon or made public,\u201d Cotton told Canadian Affairs in an email.<\/p>\n
He also noted the commissioner may lack the incentive to expose wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe career of the Commissioner, Canada\u2019s chief lobbying watchdog, depends heavily on keeping the politicians they are supposed to be overseeing happy,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir reappointment depends on the ongoing support of the Government. So, we end up with a system where even when the watchdog could continue to push a case rather than letting it disappear into the black hole, they may have an incentive to avoid doing so.\u201d<\/p>\n
Structural loopholes<\/p>\n
In March, B\u00e9langer\u2019s office proposed nearly two dozen reforms to strengthen Canada\u2019s lobbying regime.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A key substantive proposal includes a requirement for companies\u2019 in-house lobbyists to register by default. Under current rules, in-house lobbyists are only required to register if they spend at least eight hours a week over four consecutive weeks lobbying.<\/p>\n
B\u00e9langer also recommended requiring all communications with certain officials to be disclosed. Currently, lobbyists are only required to report on certain oral, pre-arranged communications with designated officials.\u00a0<\/p>\n
B\u00e9langer also asked for her office to have more robust enforcement powers, such as the ability to impose monetary penalties and temporarily prohibit lobbying.<\/p>\n
Conacher says B\u00e9langer already has the tools at her disposal to better enforce lobbying laws. She has simply failed to use them, he says.<\/p>\n
But he also believes her recommendations for reform do not go far enough.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u200a[B\u00e9langer] says, \u2018We need transparency, we need transparency,\u2019\u201d said Conacher. \u201cBut then her recommendations don\u2019t address huge secret lobbying loopholes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Democracy Watch would like to see the Lobbying Act cover a broader range of lobbying activities.<\/p>\n
Currently, the law does not apply to individuals, such as strategic advisors, who may indirectly influence policy decisions.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u200aIt is the biggest loophole,\u201d said Conacher. \u201c\u200aAll consultant lobbyists, if they [receive] a contract that says, \u2018I\u2019m paid to give you strategic advice, but not for lobbying\u2019, then they don\u2019t have to register.\u201d<\/p>\n
Democracy Watch has also called for the entire disclosure system to be redesigned so public officials bear responsibility for reporting lobbying activity, rather than lobbyists themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u200aYou just require politicians, their staff, government appointees and employees, and political party officials, to register anyone who communicates with them in any way about any of their decision-making processes that they\u2019re involved in,\u201d said Conacher.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThen you catch everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Persuasion at the edge<\/p>\n
Cotton, of Queen\u2019s University, says lobbying plays an important \u2014 and often misunderstood \u2014 part in the policy-making process.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe public often perceives lobbying as backroom deals and quid pro quo agreements between politicians and special interests,\u201d he told Canadian Affairs in an email.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore often, it involves the sharing of information or presenting a persuasive case in favour of a beneficial position or against a harmful one,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But he noted that disclosure rules are important for ensuring the public can see who is influencing government decisions. On this, Canada\u2019s current rules are inadequate, he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cCanada has disclosure rules that sound like they may be sufficient to ensure transparency and accountability.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBut, the bureaucratic and political reality in how the rules are applied and enforced make it too easy to sidestep the reporting requirements and avoid consequences for unethical or illegal activities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
For there to be accountability, there must be transparency, he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho are politicians, bureaucrats and staff talking with? About what? On whose behalf? Are lobbyists or those they represent also making political contributions?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lobbying plays an important role, so we would not want to simply ban it, he noted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we do want to hold politicians and special interests accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tRelated Posts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Read: 4 min Lobbyists are rarely held accountable when they break the rules, according to Canada\u2019s top government…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,2305,4709],"class_list":{"0":"post-15455","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-politics-policy","10":"tag-pressreader"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}