Annual report 2022-23

Timeliness of communication reports

While the majority of communication reports were filed within the prescribed delay nearly 94% of the time, we’ve noticed an increase in the number of late communication reports, which is a detriment to transparency.

The vast majority of late reports are submitted between 1-15 days late but there are also far too many that were up 180 days late. Some were even submitted more than 180 days late.

Under the Lobbying Act, it is an offence to fail to file communication reports no later than 15 days after the end of the month in which the communication occurred.

The Office accepts these late filings to increase transparency in the Registry of Lobbyists and only where it would be necessary to ensure future compliance if an investigation is conducted. We educate lobbyists about their reporting obligations and monitor their compliance for one year.

Commissioner Bélanger continues to recommend amending the Lobbying Act to allow a spectrum of sanctions to provide greater flexibility in imposing appropriate and proportionate remedies to address non-compliance with the Act.

Timeliness of communication reports

Late communication reports

Registration and Client Services

To ensure compliance as well as accurate and consistent data in the Registry of Lobbyists, the Registration and Client Services team reviews all new, updated, and reactivated registrations to verify that they meet all the disclosure requirements outlined in the Lobbying Act.

In addition to assisting with registrations, the team delivers information sessions to help lobbyists understand their obligations under the Lobbying Act and the Lobbyists’ Code of Conduct. The team also answers inquiries from stakeholders on a wide range of topics and reaches out to lobbyists to offer advice and support.

Registration and client services contacted more than 50 individuals whose names appeared in media reports after being hired by government relations firms, organizations, and corporations that engage in federal lobbying. This helps potential lobbyists understand the Lobbying Act’s registration and reporting requirements as well as, when applicable, the post-employment restrictions on lobbying for former designated public office holders.

Reviewing registrations

Between April 1, 2022, and March 31, 2023, the team reviewed and posted 9,120 registrations, including new, reactivated and updated registrations. This represents an average of 760 per month, a 12% increase over the previous year.

Of these, 1,749, or about 19%, were returned to the registrant only once for corrections following a review by the client services advisors, while another 300, or about 3%, were sent back for correction more than once.

The overall number of new registrations increased by 20% while the number of reactivated registrations increased by 24% in 2022-23.

Registration activity

Inquiries by source

Inquiries by topic

Service standards for Registration and client services

In 2022-23, the Registration and Client Services team continued with its excellence in providing services, exceeding all service standards when processing new registrations, responding to inquiries, and answering calls within 30 seconds. They achieved an outstanding 100% result in three out of five service standards, demonstrating their commitment to providing excellent and timely service to stakeholders.

Ensuring compliance

Compliance Directorate

The Compliance Directorate ensures that registrants, lobbyists, and former designated public office holders meet their obligations by conducting activities to enforce the Lobbying Act and the Lobbyists’ Code of Conduct.

The Compliance Directorate began 2022-23 with 31 files at the preliminary assessment stage of an investigation and 1 investigation. Thirty (30) preliminary assessments were initiated during the year, an increase of 27% over 2021-22. A total of 27 files were closed at the preliminary assessment stage while 3 investigations were pursued.

During the year, the Commissioner referred 1 investigation to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) as she had reasonable grounds to believe an offense occurred under the Lobbying Act.

When the Commissioner refers a file to the RCMP, she must suspend her investigation. If the referral does not result in a charge or conviction, the Commissioner may decide to cease the investigation or continue to investigate and report to Parliament. Following the RCMP’s decision not to pursue 6 referrals, the Commissioner ceased 5 of those investigations as there was no compliance rationale to continue them due to changes in circumstances and the amount of time passed since the underlying events took place. As of March 31st, 2023, no decision had been made with respect to the sixth referred investigation returned to the Office. At the end of March 2023, 31 files were at the preliminary assessment stage while 4 were ongoing investigations.

In addition to investigation efforts, the Office conducts compliance assessments to address the late filing of registrations and communication reports. Regular monitoring is conducted for a period of 1 year to ensure continued compliance. In 2022-23, we monitored 44 lobbyists.

Compliance statistics

Charge laid under the Lobbying Act

On September 8, 2022, the RCMP formally charged Andrew Burns under section 14(1) of the Lobbying Act resulting from unregistered lobbying activities he allegedly conducted on behalf of Marine Land Canada Inc., in relation to Bill S-203. This charge follows a referral by the Commissioner of Lobbying in late 2018.

When the Commissioner has reason to believe that an offence has been committed under the Lobbying Act, she must suspend her investigation and refer the matter to a peace officer such as the RCMP, which then conducts it own investigation.

Exemption requests

In 2022-23, the Office received 8 applications for exemptions to the five-year restriction on lobbying from former designated public office holders. Another 2 applications were carried over from the previous year.

Of these 10 requests:

• 0 were granted
• 6 were denied
• 2 were withdrawn
• 2 were carried over to 2023-24

Exemption request service standards

Communication report verification

To ensure accurate reporting by lobbyists, the Office extracts a sample (5%) of new communication reports filed in the Registry of Lobbyists every month and asks the designated public office holders named in them to confirm whether the information submitted in the reports is complete and accurate.

By the end of 2022-23, designated public office holders named in 1,510 communication reports reviewed the information and confirmed that 1,329 reports or 88% were complete and accurate.

The noticeable difference in the total number of verified communication reports between this fiscal year (1,510) and the previous one (1,813) is explained by a 6-month pilot project undertaken in 2021-22 which saw the sampling size increase to 10%. As there was no significant impact on the compliance rate, the pilot was abandoned that same year to focus on other compliance activities.

Communication report verifications

Common inaccuracies in communication reports

Expanding awareness and understanding

Outreach and education

The Office engages with stakeholders to foster awareness and understanding of their obligations under the Lobbying Act and the Lobbyists’ Code of Conduct. In 2022-23, we met with 709 stakeholders through 78 presentations to lobbyists, public office holders, and other interested parties, such as international organizations.

The Office also began to develop new tools and strategies that we will implement in fiscal year 2023-24 to ensure that lobbyists understand their obligations under the Act and the Code. We will update existing products, develop new awareness and education material, and offer more information sessions.

Interactions with stakeholders

The Office also advised 49 potential lobbyists of the Lobbying Act’s registration requirements through advisory letters. We also sent 51 letters to former designated office holders outlining the five-year restriction on lobbying.

Media engagement

The Office received 68 media inquiries in 2022-23, almost doubling the number of inquiries received in 2021-22 and bringing it closer to the average of previous years. Unsurprisingly, about 41% were related to the renewal of the Lobbyists’ Code of Conduct, while 38% concerned rules and compliance activities. Another 18% inquired about the Registry of Lobbyists.

We also granted 2 interviews to journalists. A further 6 were declined or deferred to 2023-24 while the public consultation process for the updates to the Code and the parliamentary study ran its respective course.

Parliamentary activities

The Commissioner of Lobbying reports to Parliament through the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics (ETHI). Throughout 2022-23, Commissioner Bélanger testified before the Committee on two occasions. The Commissioner also wrote to the Committee on several occasions in relation to the development of the Code (see Spotlight on updating the Lobbyists’ Code of Conduct).

On May 19, 2022, Commissioner Bélanger appeared before the Committee to discuss the Main Estimates and answer members’ questions about the federal lobbying regime.

On February 3, 2023, Commissioner Bélanger testified before the Committee as they undertook a study of the Commissioner’s updates to the Lobbyists’ Code of Conduct.

At the beginning of 2023-24, Commissioner Bélanger once again appeared before the Committee, this time to discuss the Main Estimates. During this appearance, Commissioner Bélanger reiterated the long overdue need to amend the Lobbying Act and her readiness to assist in this important work.

Lobbyist registrars and commissioners network

Commissioner Bélanger and a few members of the Office participated in two meetings with the Lobbyists Registrars and Commissioners Network (LRCN) to share best practices and provide updates related to our respective legislation. The LRCN typically meets twice a year, once in person and once virtually.

The first meeting of the 2022-23 fiscal year took place in October 2023 in Québec City, Québec and was hosted by Lobbyisme Québec.

Members met once more, virtually this time, in March 2023, with the Office hosting the meeting.

Workings of the Office

Employees returned to work at the office one day per week in the spring of 2022 and two days per week in early fall of the same year. At their discretion, some employees chose to work from the office more often.

This hybrid approach has allowed employees to continue to prioritize work-life balance, while also enabling activities that are better achieved through in-person collaboration.

Information management

This year, the Office modified its information management system to align the structure with the federal government’s Information Management Common Core. Several training sessions were held in both official languages ahead of this change to provide employees with information on the functionalities of the information management system.

In addition, a comprehensive learning hub was created. It features learning aids on over 20 topics, a search manual and document naming convention guidelines.

Accessibility

In accordance with the Accessible Canada Act, the Office implemented its Accessibility Plan 2023-25 that sets out 10 goals over the next 3 years to support accessibility for our employees and stakeholders in the delivery of our activities and mandate.

The 10 goals are set to support accessibility in the areas of employment; design and delivery of programs and services; built environment; information and communication technology (ICT); and communication other than ICT.

This plan was developed after receiving input from employees of the Office, public office holders, registrants and their representatives, as well as the general public.

Exceptional workplace

The ability of the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying (OCL) to continue fulfilling its mandate and performing excellent work year-after-year relies on its capacity to foster an exceptional work environment to retain the talent it has and attract new talent.

Overall results of the 2022 Public Service Employee Survey (PSES) demonstrate the success of these ongoing efforts. As in the last PSES from 2020, the Office continued to score well in a number of areas, including a safe workplace, work-life balance, and employee engagement.

The Office continued to have no employees reporting that they had been the victim of harassment or discrimination.

The Office also delivered a perfect score regarding Official Languages, with all employees responding that they have the tools and resources to work in the language of their choice and feel free to use the language of their choice.

Also notable is that 100% of employees responded that they know how their work contributes to the achievements of the Office. Almost all respondents said that they would recommend the Office as a great place to work and that they like their job.

PSES 2022 results

Mental health strategy

The Office’s first Mental Health Strategy continues to strive for a workplace that supports employee health, safety and well-being through collaboration, inclusiveness, respect and continuous learning.

Efforts from the strategy first launched in 2019-20 are bearing fruit. The 2022 PSES showed that 100% of employees agreed that the Office does a good job of raising awareness of mental health in the workplace.

Throughout 2022-23, the Office’s Mental Health Committee promoted several initiatives designed to support the mental health of employees and increase awareness of mental health.

Looking ahead

For the first half of 2023-24, efforts will focus on ensuring that lobbyists understand the updated Lobbyists’ Code of Conduct, which comes into force on July 1, 2023. We will begin by prioritizing communications with those who are currently listed in the Registry of Lobbyists to support their understanding and compliance with the updated standards of ethical behaviour.

More broadly, we are developing ways to expand awareness and understanding of the lobbying regime. We will increase our products and tools, while also improving our use of plain language, so that we can further promote compliance.

Education and engagement activities will not only be aimed at lobbyists but also at other stakeholders, including media, public office holders and designated public office holders. Each stakeholder group has its own information needs and each plays a role in supporting ethical behaviour and transparency for a healthy democracy.

On the compliance front, the team will focus on completing the ongoing files and developing strategies to address late registration and communication reporting.

In the continued absence of a review and changes to the Act, the Commissioner will continue to identify and pursue improvements that could enhance the transparency, fairness, clarity and efficiency of the federal lobbying regime.

Building on the preliminary recommendations made in 2021, such changes include updating our interpretation materials concerning the application and enforcement of the Lobbying Act, improving the Registry of Lobbyists by linking the relevant subject matter to the details, and potentially seeking regulatory updates that would enable the ease and effectiveness of lobbying registration.

As these plans are ambitious for a very capable but small team of employees, we will staff new positions and continue to deliver excellence in our service to Canadians.