Registry of Lobbyists
This manual provides an overview of the lobbyist registration process.
The document breaks down into seven chapters:
The annexes provide a glossary.
To facilitate navigation, the document contains a large number of hyperlinks,
Two types of Notes are used to draw the reader's attention to items of particular interest:
The Lobbying Act (the Act) provides for the public registration of those individuals who are paid, by an employer or a client, to communicate with public office holders (POHs) with regard to certain matters as described in the legislation. Public office holders are defined in the Act as virtually all persons occupying an elected or appointed position in the Government of Canada, including members of the House of Commons and the Senate and their staff, as well as officers and employees of federal departments and agencies, members of the Canadian Forces and members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
The Act is based on four key principles:
Individuals must be registered if they lobby, i.e., if they communicate with federal POHs, for payment, with regard to:
Interpretation Bulletin on Communicating with Federal Public Office Holders
The Lobbying Act defined designated public office holders (DPOHs) to include ministers, ministers of state and ministerial staff, deputy heads, associate deputy heads and assistant deputy ministers and those of comparable ranks throughout the public service. The Designated Public Office Holder Regulations extended this definition to include fourteen additional positions or classes of positions.
Positions and classes of positions
Interpretation Bulletin on Communicating with Designated Public Office Holders
The Lobbyists Registration Regulations set the form and manner in which lobbyists must file returns required by the Lobbying Act. Returns disclose information regarding the lobbying activities of registrants. The Regulations also set out additional information to be disclosed in returns, beyond what is required by the Lobbying Act. They set the time frames to respond to a request by the Commissioner for correction or clarification of information submitted in returns. The Regulations also describe the type of communication that will trigger monthly communication reports. The form and manner of registration set out in the Lobbyists Registration Regulations are reflected in the Lobbyists Registration System interface that is provided to users of the system.
The Commissioner of Lobbying is an independent Agent of Parliament, appointed by Parliament under the Lobbying Act for a term of seven years. The purpose of the Act is to ensure transparency and accountability in the lobbying of public office holders in order to contribute to confidence in the integrity of government decision-making.
The mandate of the Commissioner is threefold:
The Registration and Client Services Directorate is responsible for developing and maintaining the Lobbyists Registration System (LRS) and the online Registry of Lobbyists. The LRS allows users to register their lobbying activities and perform transactions, such as filing registrations and monthly communication reports. The Registry allows Canadians to search for lobbyists and lobbying activity. Employees of the Registration and Client Services Directorate process lobbyists' registrations and offer client service to registrants, public office holders, and the general public.
The Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying has developed client service standards for its registration activities.
The Official Languages Act (OLA) recognizes that English and French have equality of status in all institutions of Parliament and the Government of Canada. The OCL adheres to all OLA requirements and related Treasury Board policies, and is committed to fulfilling the objectives of the Official Languages Program. All services offered to the public are offered in both official languages.
Further information about language rights and obligations can be found at the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages website: www.ocol-clo.gc.ca.
The OCL adheres to all relevant legislation and guidelines governing the collection, protection, access and use of information including the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act, and related Treasury Board policies.
For information on release of information to the public, please consult the Office of the Privacy Commissioner's website.
The Lobbying Act provides for two categories of lobbyists: Consultants and In-House Lobbyists.
Consultant lobbyists include any individual who is paid to communicate with public office holders on behalf of a client. A consultant lobbyist may not be primarily engaged to lobby. It could be any individual who, in the course of his or her work on behalf of a client, communicates with or arranges a meeting with a public office holder. For example, lawyers, accountants and other professionals may lobby as a portion of the services they provide. Consultant lobbyists are required to submit separate registrations for each of their clients.
In-house lobbyists communicate with public office holders on behalf of the corporation or the organization that employs them. Registration is required when one or more employees communicate with public office holders regarding certain subjects and those duties constitute a significant part of the duties of one employee or would constitute a significant part of the duties of one employee if they were performed by only one employee.
This section provides an overview of the steps involved in creating an account for the purpose of filing lobbying registrations and monthly communication reports.
You are only permitted to ever have one LRS account, which you will retain for the duration of your professional life.
The staff of the OCL is there to help you. Our advisors can be reached by phone (613-957-2760), by e-mail (info@lobbycanada.gc.ca) or by fax (613-957-3078). If you wish to meet with one of our experts, we are pleased to meet with you in person or via webinar. You may also at any time peruse our web site (lobbycanada.gc.ca) for additional information, including interpretation bulletins and other information.
In addition, the OCL offers a series of animated tutorials that provide step-by-step assistance as you progress through the registration process.
You must file a registration if you or your organization or corporation communicate with public office holders (POHs), for payment or a salary, with regard to:
The Act excludes the following public officials from registering as lobbyists when they are acting in their official capacity:
The Act does not apply to:
If you determine that you must register in the federal Registry of Lobbyists, please proceed to the next step.
You can create an account by navigating to the Lobbyists Registration System Sign in page. The information captured in the process will contribute to your profile as a user and that of your firm, organization or corporation.
In the Account Creation - Account Purpose page, select the type which best describes your purpose for creating an account within the Lobbyists Registration System.
Consultant lobbyists: You are a consultant lobbyist if you are arranging meetings between your client and public office holders and/or if you are communicating with a public office holder, on behalf of your client.
Chairperson or member of a board: You are a chairperson or member of a board of Directors who is not an employee of the corporation or organization in an employee-employer relationship and communicates with public office holders.
Most senior paid officer for an organization or corporation: You are the most senior paid officer for an organization or corporation that has employees who lobby.
Representative: You will be providing administrative help as a representative to manage submissions for registrant's accounts.
If you select Consultant Lobbyist or Chairperson or member of the board of Directors, you will be required to enter information regarding any public offices you may have held.
If you select Most senior paid officer or Representative, you will be required to enter only Contact Information on this page. (For more information on representative accounts, please see section 3.4 Linking to a Representative's Account.)
In this section, you must provide your first name, last name, preferred language correspondence, address, etc., to create your user profile within the Lobbyists Registration System. For an organization or corporation, this is the name and the contact information for the most senior paid employee of the organization or corporation.
For consultant lobbyists, if you work for a firm that has different legal names in both official languages, please enter the two names in the appropriate fields to facilitate searches within the Registry of Lobbyists. If you are self-employed, please respond No to the question Are you a consultant who works for a consulting firm?
Please indicate whether or not you held a Designated Public Office in the federal government within the last 5 years. If you have held one of these positions, enter the last day on which you held the position.
Pursuant to the Lobbying Act, Designated Public Office Holders (DPOH) are defined as Members of Parliament, Senators, Ministers, Ministers of State, ministerial staff, senior public officials such as Deputy Ministers, and Associate and Assistant Deputy Ministers (including those of comparable rank), as well as certain other senior positions designated by regulation. (See list of prescribed positions at Section 1.3.)
In order to determine if a particular position is of comparable rank to an Associate Deputy Minister or an Assistant Deputy Minister please consult the Commissioner's Interpretation Bulletin on "Comparable Rank" for Designated Public Offices.
If an individual is acting in a DPOH position for more than four consecutive months, the individual will be designated a DPOH. (See Interpretation Bulletin on Acting Appointments in Designated Public Office Holder Positions.)
Exemptions may be granted by the Commissioner of Lobbying to the five-year prohibition on lobbying activities imposed on former designated public office holders by the Lobbying Act. If you were granted such an exemption by the Commissioner, you need to specify your exemption number in this section.
For more information please see the 5-year post-employment prohibition on lobbying.
Enter a username and password that you will remember. You are encouraged to select a password that is highly secure by using, for example, a combination of both upper- and lower-case letters, numerical digits and special characters; and to change this password periodically, e.g., every 90 days. Entering the secret question and answer will allow you to reset your password in the event that you have forgotten it.
The final step in creating your account involves responding to the Account Activation e-mail you should have received. By clicking on the activation link, your account will be set as Active, and you will now be able to login to access the system.
As the registrant, you may, as an option, authorize another person (your representative) in the firm, corporation or organization (or an individual external to the firm, corporation or organization) to complete the information required in your registration and monthly communication report.
Before you can link a representative to your account, the representative will first need to create a representative account (see Create an Account and Profile). During the account creation process, the representative should take note of his/her account number, which is provided in the Create Account Confirmation screen, so that it can be provided to you for the linking process.
At any time, representatives can log in using their username and password and retrieve their account number from their Account Profile.
To link your account to a representative's account, you will first have to log into your account using your username and password. After you are logged in as the registrant, you must:
Once this linking process is complete, your representative's dashboard will provide access to your registrations and monthly communication reports.
With your activated account, you can now submit registrations for lobbying activities. Within the registration process, the information required will vary depending on which type of registration you are submitting. The next three chapters of this guide provide detailed instructions for creating a registration for consultant lobbyists, in-house organizations and in-house corporations.
In general terms, the following process is required to successfully register a lobbying activity:
Consultant lobbyists are required to register each of their lobbying activities on behalf of each client, within 10 calendar days of entering into an undertaking. Follow the instructions below to register your consultant lobbying activities:
The first step of the registration process captures the Consultant Lobbyist's Profile.
In this section, you must provide your coordinates and those of your firm (name, English and French firm name, address, telephone, e-mail). If you entered the firm information during the account creation process, you can select that firm within the Contact profile section and click Apply.
Over time, a consultant lobbyist's circumstances may change, and a self-employed lobbyist may become employed by a firm, or vice versa; or in some cases, lobbyists operate both as self-employed and as employees of a consulting firm. For these reasons, it is possible to have several firm profiles, each with distinct coordinates, within the same Consultant Lobbyist's LRS account. For guidance on creating multiple firm profiles, please see Section 7.4, Managing Firm Profiles for Consultant Lobbyists.
If you have held a public office, you must disclose, for each position held, the position title, the federal government institution, the branch or unit name, as well as the period during which you performed those functions.
The Commissioner has issued an Interpretation Bulletin providing guidance to those who have previously held public office. See Disclosure of Previous Public Offices.
The last question asks Was this a designated public office held on or after July 2, 2008?. If you answer Yes, then you must enter the last day the designated public office was held. (For more information on which positions are designated public offices, please refer to Section 3.2, Last Designated Public Office Held.)
If the Commissioner of Lobbying has granted you an exemption from the five-year prohibition on lobbying activities, please provide the exemption number in this section.
For more information please see the 5-year post-employment prohibition on lobbying.
The second step of the registration process captures information about the Consultant Lobbyist's client.
This section requires you to indicate whether you are a member of the board of directors of your client if your client is a corporation, or a member or a member of the board of directors of your client if your client is an organization.
This section requests your client's street address, city, province and postal code.
This section requests the name and position title of your main contact with the client.
The third step of the registration process requests any business relationship where the client is a subsidiary of another corporation (i.e. a parent) and/or is a coalition.
The fourth step of the registration process requests the name and coordinates of any of your client's subsidiaries or of any other person or organization who may have a direct interest in the outcome of your lobbying activities.
In the fifth step of the registration process, you must disclose if your client has received any funding during its last completed financial year from any Canadian or foreign governments, including any municipal, provincial, territorial, regional or state government, or if they expect to receive funding in the current year. If your client has received funding or expects to receive any such funding during its current financial year, you must report the source of that funding.
Funding means money made available for a particular purpose for which goods or services are not received in return, or for which repayment is not required. It includes grants and non-repayable contributions, but repayable contributions, loans, loan guarantees, tax credits, remission orders and procurement contracts would not need to be reported.
The following table provides examples of funding that should and should not be reported.
| Government Funding to be Reported |
Government Funding not to be Reported |
|---|---|
|
|
If you answer Yes to the question regarding whether your client received government funding, you will be asked to provide the source and amount of the funding in Canadian dollars.
The sixth step of the registration process requires that you provide the subject matter of your lobbying activity as well as the associated details such as the title of each legislative proposal, bill or resolution, regulation, policy or program, along with a description.
For each subject matter selected, you must describe the details of the activity, then select the associated category from the list of five choices offered.
In a drop-down menu, this section provides an extensive list from which you can choose the subject matter (e.g., Agriculture, Budget, Defence, Immigration, Mining, Transportation, etc.). You may add as many Subject Matters as apply to your undertaking.
In this section, you must provide details of each of the subject matters that you selected above, and check from a list of five associated categories (i.e., Legislative Proposal, Bill or Resolution; Regulation; Policies or Program; Grant, Contribution or Other Financial Benefit; Government Contract Pursued). Each Detail must be entered and added to the list separately, and provide specific information related to the subject matter of the lobbying activities.
Several examples are provided within the application. These are further examples of the type of detail that should be provided for each subject matter:
In this final step, you will be asked to provide the list of the government departments that you have contacted or plan to contact as well as the communication techniques that you will use in the course of your lobbying activities.
The Commissioner has issued an Interpretation Bulletin providing guidance on Communication with Federal Public Office Holders.
A drop-down menu allows you to choose the Federal Government institutions with which you will communicate.
Three pre-defined choices are offered (oral, written, grass-roots) or you may provide, in your own words, a description of any other type of communication that you plan to employ. Please see the Glossary for a definition of grass-roots communication.
With a Yes or No, you will have to answer whether you plan to arrange one or more meetings with a public office holder on behalf of your client.
The Consultant Summary screen displays the information you provided in each step of your registration.
You can review your entries, and if you wish to modify the content, click the Edit Information about… button at the bottom of each section.
The Certification of Return page will appear. It asks that you certify that
In a calendar box at the bottom of the page, you are asked to enter the date on which this submission takes effect. This is the date on which you agreed to the undertaking, which may not be the date when actual lobbying activities commenced.
The Confirmation of Filing page will appear, providing summary account information and confirming your submission date to the OCL. Additionally, an acknowledgment email will be sent. During the OCL review process, if the registration requires any corrections or clarifications, an email will be sent. If corrections are required, you will be asked to resubmit your registration with the required detail within 10 calendar days.
Chapter 7 describes activities that will occur after you register as a lobbyist. These include:
Organizations that employ individuals who communicate with public office holders on certain subject matters on behalf of the organization are required to register if those duties constitute a significant part of the duties of one employee or would constitute a significant part of the duties of one employee if they were performed by only one employee.
The most senior paid employee of an organization should use this registration type if one or more employees' duties entail communication with public office holders, and the collective time devoted to those duties equates to 20% or more of one employee's time over a one month period. Note that the time spent communicating, travelling and preparing for communicating with public office holders should be included in the calculation.
In situations where the time related to lobbying is difficult to estimate, the most senior paid employee will have to estimate the relative importance of the lobbying activities by examining, for example, the various duties for which the employee is responsible and determining the proportion related to lobbying activities.
For more information please see the Interpretation Bulletin on A Significant Part of Duties ("The 20% Rule").
The registration must include the names of all remunerated employees who lobby on behalf of the organization.
Please follow the instructions below to register your organization's lobbying activities:
The first step of the registration process captures information about the most senior paid employee of the organization.
This section uses the name of the registrant (who is the most senior paid employee of the organization) and requests his/her position title. Examples of the position titles of registrants in organizations are Executive Director, President, Chief Executive Officer, General Manager and/or Chief Operating Officer.
This section requests the French and English names of the organization, if applicable, as well as its contact coordinates (address and telephone number).
This section asks for a general description of the organization's activities and its membership, so as to provide a context for the organization's lobbying activities.
The second step of the registration process captures information about the employees of the organization who are involved in lobbying.
A new screen will open, allowing you to capture the name and position of each lobbyist.
For each lobbyist within the organization that has held a public office, you must disclose, for each position held, the position title, the federal government institution, the branch or unit name, as well as the period during which those functions were performed.
If the Commissioner of Lobbying has granted a lobbyist within your organization an exemption from the five-year prohibition on lobbying activities, please provide the exemption number in this section.
For more information please see the 5-year post-employment prohibition on lobbying.
In the third step of the registration process, you must disclose if the organization has received any funding during its last completed financial year from Canadian or foreign governments, including any municipal, provincial, territorial, regional or state government or if they expect to receive funding in the current year. If the organization has received funding or expects to receive any such funding during its current financial year, you must report the source of that funding.
Funding means money made available for a particular purpose for which goods or services are not received in return, or for which repayment is not required. It includes federal grants and non-repayable contributions, but repayable contributions, loans, loan guarantees, tax credits, remission orders and procurement contracts would not need to be reported.
The following table provides examples of funding that should and should not be reported.
| Government Funding to be Reported |
Government Funding not to be Reported |
|---|---|
|
|
If you answer Yes to the question regarding whether the organization received government funding, you will be asked to provide the source and amount of the funding in Canadian dollars.
The fourth step of the registration process requires that you provide the subject matter of your lobbying activity as well as the associated details such as the title of each legislative proposal, bill or resolution, regulation, policy or program, along with a description.
In a drop-down menu, this section provides an extensive list from which you can choose the subject matter (e.g., Agriculture, Budget, Defence, Immigration, Mining, Transportation, etc.). You may add as many Subject Matters as apply to your lobbying activity.
In this section, you must provide details of each of the subject matters that you selected above, and check from a list of four associated categories (i.e., Legislative Proposal, Bill or Resolution; Regulation; Policies or Program; Grant, Contribution or Other Financial Benefit). Each Detail must be entered and added to the list separately, and provide specific information related to the subject matter of the lobbying activities.
Several examples are provided within the application. These are further examples of the type of detail that should be provided for each subject matter:
In this final step, you will be asked to provide the list of the government departments that you have contacted or plan to contact as well as the communication techniques that you will use in the course of your lobbying activities.
The Commissioner has issued an Interpretation Bulletin providing guidance on Communication with Federal Public Office Holders.
A drop-down menu allows you to choose the Federal Government institutions with which you will communicate.
Three pre-defined choices are offered (oral, written, grass-roots) or you may provide, in your own words, a description of any other type of communication that you plan to employ. Please see the Glossary for a definition of grass-roots communication.
The Organization Summary screen displays the information you provided in each step of the registration. Consequently, it contains five sections.
You can review the entries made in each step, and if you wish to modify the content, click the Edit Information about… button at the bottom of each section.
The Certification of Return page will appear. It asks that you certify that the information is true.
In a calendar box at the bottom of the page, you are asked to enter the date on which this submission takes effect.
The Confirmation of Filing page will appear, providing summary account information and confirming your submission date to the OCL. Additionally, an acknowledgment email will be sent. During the OCL review process, if the registration requires any corrections or clarifications, an email will be sent. If corrections are required, you will be asked to resubmit your registration with the required detail within 10 calendar days.
Chapter 7 describes activities that will occur after you register as a lobbyist. These include:
In-house corporations that employ individuals who communicate with public office holders on certain subject matters are required to register if those duties constitute a significant part of the duties of one employee or would constitute a significant part of the duties of one employee if they were performed by only one employee. In-house lobbyists (Corporations) work for compensation in an entity that operates for profit.
The most senior paid employee of a corporation should use this registration type if one or more employees' duties involve communication with public office holders, and the collective time devoted to those duties equates to 20% or more of one employee's time over a one month period. Note that the time spent communicating, travelling and preparing for communicating with public office holders should be included in the calculation.
In situations where the time related to lobbying is difficult to estimate, the most senior paid employee will have to estimate the relative importance of the lobbying activities by examining, for example, the various duties for which the employee is responsible and determining the proportion related to lobbying activities.
For more information please see the Interpretation Bulletin on A Significant Part of Duties ("The 20% Rule").
The registration must include two separate lists of employees who communicate with public office holders. The first must include the names and titles of senior officers and employees whose lobbying activities represent a significant part of their duties (i.e. 20% or more), and the second list must include the names and titles of all other senior officers of the corporation not listed in the first list, whose lobbying activities represent any part of their duties (less than 20%).
Please follow the instructions below to register your corporation's lobbying activities:
The first step of the registration process captures the Profile of the most senior paid employee of the corporation.
This section uses the name of the registrant (who is the most senior paid employee of the corporation) and requests his/her position title. Examples of the position titles of registrants in corporations are President, Chief Executive Officer, General Manager and/or Chief Operating Officer
This section requests the French and English names of the corporation, if applicable, as well as its contact coordinates (address and telephone number).
This section asks for a general description of the corporation's activities, so as to provide a context for the corporation's lobbying activities.
The second step of the registration process requests any business relationship where the corporation is a subsidiary of another corporation. If any parent companies exist for the corporation, information related to each is required.
The third step of the registration process requests the name and coordinates of any of the corporation's subsidiaries who may have a direct interest in the outcome of the corporation's lobbying activities.
The fourth step of the registration process captures information about the employees of the corporation who are involved in lobbying.
All Senior Officers of the corporation (defined as the group consisting of the most senior paid employee of the corporation and all his/her direct reports) who carry out any lobbying activities must be listed as in-house lobbyists (corporations). All other paid employees of the corporation for whom lobbying activities represent a significant part of their duties (20% or more) must also be listed in the corporation's registration. In the case of Senior Officers of the corporation, you will be asked to indicate whether or not lobbying activities represent more or less than 20% of their duties.
The officer responsible for filing the registration (i.e., the most senior paid officer) is also required by the Lobbying Act to provide the prescribed information concerning the public offices and the designated public offices previously held by in-house corporate lobbyists within the federal government.
A new screen will open, allowing you to capture the name and position of each lobbyist.
For each lobbyist within the corporation that has held a public office, you must disclose, for each position held, the position title, the federal government institution, the branch or unit name, as well as the period during which those functions were performed.
If the Commissioner of Lobbying has granted a lobbyist within your corporation an exemption from the five-year prohibition on lobbying activities, please provide the exemption number in this section.
For more information please see the 5-year post-employment prohibition on lobbying.
In the fifth step of the registration process, you must disclose if the corporation has received any funding during its last completed financial year from Canadian or foreign governments, including any municipal, provincial, territorial, regional or state government, or if they expect to receive funding in the current year. If your corporation has received funding or expects to receive any such funding during its current financial year, you must report the source of that funding.
Funding means money made available for a particular purpose for which goods or services are not received in return, or for which repayment is not required. It includes federal grants and non-repayable contributions, but repayable contributions, loans, loan guarantees, tax credits, remission orders and procurement contracts would not need to be reported.
The following table provides examples of funding that should and should not be reported.
| Government Funding to be Reported |
Government Financing not to be Reported |
|---|---|
|
|
If you answer Yes to the question regarding whether the corporation received government funding, you will be asked to provide the source and amount of the funding in Canadian dollars.
The sixth step of the registration process requires that you provide the subject matter of your lobbying activity as well as the associated details such as the title of each legislative proposal, bill or resolution, regulation, policy or program, along with a description.
In a drop-down menu, this section provides an extensive list from which you can choose the subject matter (e.g., Agriculture, Budget, Defence, Immigration, Mining, Transportation, etc.). You may add as many Subject Matters as apply to your lobbying activity.
In this section, you must provide details of each of the subject matters that you selected above, and check from a list of four associated categories (i.e., Legislative Proposal, Bill or Resolution; Regulation; Policies or Program; Grant, Contribution or Other Financial Benefit). Each Detail must be entered and added to the list separately, and provide specific information related to the subject matter of the lobbying activities.
Several examples are provided within the application. These are further examples of the type of detail that should be provided for each subject matter:
In this final step, you will be asked to provide the list of the government departments that you have contacted or plan to contact as well as the communication techniques that you will use in the course of your lobbying activities.
The Commissioner has issued an Interpretation Bulletin providing guidance on Communication with Federal Public Office Holders.
A drop-down menu allows you to choose the Federal Government institutions with which you will communicate.
Three pre-defined choices are offered (oral, written, grass-roots) or you may provide, in your own words, a description of any other type of communication that you plan to employ. Please see the Glossary for a definition of grass-roots communication.
The Corporation Summary screen displays the information you provided in each step of the registration.
You can review your entries, and if you wish to modify content, click the Edit Information about… button at the bottom of each section.
The Certification of Return page will appear. It asks that you certify that the information is true.
In a calendar box at the bottom of the page, you are asked to enter the date on which this submission takes effect.
The Confirmation of Filing page will appear, providing summary account information and confirming your submission date to the OCL. Additionally, an acknowledgment email will be sent. During the review process, if the registration requires corrections or clarifications, an email will be sent. If corrections are required, you will be asked to resubmit your registration with the required detail within 10 calendar days.
Chapter 7 describes activities that will occur after you register as a lobbyist. These include:
This chapter describes activities that will occur after you register as a lobbyist. These include:
The Act stipulates that registrations must be updated no later than 15 days after the end of a month if information contained in an active registration is no longer correct or additional information that the registrant has become aware of should be included in the registration (e.g., new in-house lobbyist, new government institution being lobbied, new subject matter being lobbied, etc.).
If five months have elapsed since the end of a month in which either:
the Act requires that the registrant file a six-month return before the first of the following month. When you begin a six-month return, you have the option to either:
Monthly communication reports must be filed not later than 15 days after the end of any month in which communication of a prescribed type involving a designated public office holder took place. Pursuant to the Lobbying Act, Designated Public Office Holders (DPOH) are defined as Members of Parliament, Senators, Ministers, Ministers of State, ministerial staff, senior public officials such as Deputy Ministers, and Associate and Assistant Deputy Ministers (including those of comparable rank), as well as certain other senior positions designated by regulation. (See list of prescribed positions at Section 1.3.)
The Lobbyists Registration Regulations prescribe the types of communications that must be reported in a monthly report as "oral and arranged communications excluding oral and arranged communications initiated by public office holders related to the development or amendment of policy, programs, regulations or legislation." In-house and consultant lobbyists must report all oral and arranged communications relating to financial benefits, even when initiated by a public officer holder. Likewise, consultant lobbyists must report oral and arranged communications relating to a contract regardless of who initiated the communication.
The tables below summarize the criteria to be used by consultant lobbyists (Table 1) and in-house lobbyists (Table 2) to determine whether or not to report certain communications with a DPOH.
| Monthly Communications Reports Communications between DPOHs and Consultant Lobbyists |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| Oral and arranged communication(s) | Related to the development or amendment of policies, programs, regulations or legislations | Related to government contracts | Related to financial benefits, i.e. grant or contribution |
| Initiated by someone other than a POH: | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Initiated by a POH: | No | Yes | Yes |
| Monthly Communications Reports Communications between DPOHs and In-House Lobbyists |
||
|---|---|---|
| Oral and arranged communication(s) | Related to the development or amendment of policies, programs, regulations or legislations | Related to financial benefits, i.e. a grant or contribution |
| Initiated by someone other than a POH: | Yes | Yes |
| Initiated by a POH: | No | Yes |
Oral communications with Designated Public Office Holders include phone conversations, meetings, and any other oral communication such as a communication that takes place over the Internet using VoIP or other modern technologies.
An arranged communication is one that has been arranged in advance, and where:
The monthly communication report must contain:
Before they can file monthly communication reports with the OCL, registrants must:
To submit a monthly communication report, return to the Registrant Dashboard.
From the Current Activities tab, choose the registration for which a monthly communication report must be filed, then click the Add New link in the Communication Reports section.
Before entering the data concerning monthly communications with designated public office holders, you must first confirm that the information in the underlying registration is complete and accurate. To do this, scroll through the registration to view it. If the registration needs to be updated, click the Return to Registrant Dashboard link at the bottom left of the page.
If either the subject matter of your communication or the government institution of the DPOH with whom you communicated is not in the In Associated Registration list, scroll down and you will find them in the Not in Associated Registration list. This means that you will need to update the underlying registration as soon as possible.
In the Certify Communication Report page, review all the information entered to ensure it is correct. Check the corresponding box to confirm that the information entered is true to the best of your knowledge. Choose whether you wish to publish the monthly communication report immediately in the Registry of Lobbyists, or have the system publish it automatically on the due date. Enter your username and password, then click the Certify button.
Your communication report has now been submitted and a confirmation page is shown. We recommend that you keep a copy for your files.
Click on What is a DPOH? to ensure that the person you have communicated with holds a designated position.
A Government Electronic Directory Services (GEDS) icon link beside each first name field is provided to allow you to conduct a search and confirm the spelling of a DPOH name. OCL highly encourages registrants to use this tool to ensure accuracy of data.
Accessing your previously entered monthly communication reports depends upon if your registration activity is currently active or inactive.
For Active or Pending Registration Activities:
For Inactive Registration Activities:
There are two reasons that a monthly communication report might need to be amended or cancelled:
To amend a monthly communication report, follow the steps below:
To cancel a monthly communication report, follow the steps below:
In accordance with the Act, registrants must inform the Commissioner when a lobbyist's undertaking has been performed or is terminated, or when an organization or corporation no longer meets the significant part of duties threshold (see sections 5 and 6 of this guide, as well as the Interpretation Bulletin relating to significant part of duties (the 20 % rule).)
When a lobbyist's undertaking is completed or terminated, or when a corporation or organization no longer meets the significant part of duties threshold, registrants must terminate the registration no later than 15 days after the end of the month in which that situation occurs.
To terminate an activity, first go to the Current Activities tab of the Registrant Dashboard. Click on the End Activity link for the activity you want to terminate, confirm the lobbying activity has now ceased, enter the date on which the lobbying activity ceased and then enter your username and password.
Occasionally, a corporation or an organization will have a change at its most senior level, which will trigger a need to update the information concerning the senior officer responsible for filing in the Lobbyists Registration System (i.e. the registrant). The registrant is the employee who holds the most senior remunerated executive position within the corporation or organization (e.g. the Chief Executive Officer, the Executive Director or the President). The information in the existing account can be transferred, however, this is an administrative process performed by the OCL staff only. In order to transfer the content of an In-House Corporation's or an In-House Organization's registration from the current registrant to the new registrant's account, the Corporation or Organization must contact the OCL who will email the transfer procedures and request further information. When it receives a satisfactory reply to these questions as well as a new Registrant User Agreement, the OCL will proceed to change your organization's most senior officer in the Lobbyists Registration System.
Once the transfer process is finalized, the OCL will advise you via e-mail that your registration has been updated to reflect the change of registrant.
The Consultant's Firm Profiles section within the registrant dashboard allows you to do the following:
If the address, telephone number or email addresses have changed for the consulting firm profile, you can update this information once without having to update each registration independently.
To edit existing firm profiles:
It is possible to have several firm profiles, each with distinct coordinates, within the same Consultant Lobbyist's LRS account. Separate profiles allow the lobbyists to apply the appropriate firm profile to each lobbying activity.
To add a new firm profile:
If you are no longer using a firm profile within an active or pending registration, you can remove the profile from your list.
To remove a firm profile:
If you wish to submit a new consultant registration using the same or similar content as another registration that is currently in the public registry for the same client, you can save time by using the Copy Registration feature provided in the Lobbyists Registration System.
To create a new registration from an existing consultant registration, consultant lobbyists should return to the Registrant Dashboard.
There are two ways to copy a consultant registration.
This Glossary includes two sections:
The six-month report allows the registrant to confirm the following two items: