Lobbyists say that while there are double the number of communications reports as there were last year, they are not doing twice the amount of work.
PUBLISHED : Monday, June 6, 2016 12:00 AM
Communication reports filed with Canada’s federal lobbyists registry are running at more than twice the level they were at this time last year, even though there’s little change in the number of registered lobbyists and a less significant increase in registrations. Lobbyists say the boost in registrations is mostly due to the new Liberal government, which is more willing to engage with hired guns.
The registry shows there were 2,022 communication reports filed for April, the most recent month for which these totals are available. That’s more than double the 1,003 that were filed a year earlier.
Among consultant lobbyists, communication reports were up 142.5 per cent, on a year-to-year basis, to 611, up 107 per cent to 445 among in-house corporate lobbyists, and up 80.2 per cent to 966 among in-house lobbyists for not-for-profit organizations.
As for the number of registered active lobbyists as of April 30, this figure was down slightly at 5,150 compared to 5,180 a year before. The headcount among registered consultant lobbyists was up 6.7 per cent to 857, though corporate in-house lobbyists were reduced by 4.7 per cent to 1,627, and organizational in-house lobbyists were 0.1 per cent fewer at 2,666.
Registrations, which cover certain lobbyists to contact designated public office holders within specified government branches on certain subjects, stood at 3,334 at the end of April, up 9.8 per cent from a year earlier. For consultant lobbyists, that figure was up 13.6 per cent to 2,527 registrations, it was even for in-house corporate lobbyists at 305, and down one per cent for in-house organizational lobbyists at 502.
As has been reported previously in The Hill Times, the increase in lobbying activity seen this year is largely attributed to the new Liberal government being more open than the previous Conservative government in hearing from various stakeholders.
One corporate lobbyist, who declined to be named, also pointed out that at this time last year, the former Conservative government would have been preoccupied with the election that was coming up in October and even less willing that normal to interact with lobbyists.
“When any government of any political stripe is preparing for an election campaign, that’s when you’d think the day-to-day and regulatory discussions grind to a halt,” he said.
Yet, even in comparison to the numbers from April 2014, communications reports for this past April are up more than 60 per cent.
Tim Powers, a consultant lobbyist with Summa Strategies, agreed the Liberal government has been more willing to engage with lobbyists than the previous Conservative government. He added that lobbyists are also likely being extra careful about registering their communications, as not to run afoul of the new government early in its mandate.
Mr. Powers added, however, that the numbers are not indicative of a situation in which twice the amount of work is being done by the same number of lobbyists.
“I wouldn’t judge workload based on reports,” he said. “There’s a lot of people who do a lot of work and do a lot strategic advice, provision, and research that isn’t deemed as registrable.”
Mr. Powers said his job is busier right now, but not unusually so. He noted that the budget that came down in March created extra work for lobbyists; beforehand for those trying to influence the budget and afterward for those trying to understand its implications.
Overall, however, he said his company’s activity levels are similar to where they were last year.
Chris Gray, senior manager of government relations for the Heart and Stroke Foundation, said he’s somewhat busier than he was a year ago, but not at a scale proportional to the increase in communication reports.
“We were working more behind the scenes [last year], working on our election platform for Heart and Stroke and what we wanted to see put forward to the parties,” he said. “So it was a lot more introspective thinking and, ‘How are we going to manage things with this government or that government.’ So it was a little more internal planning.
“I wouldn’t say that the workload has doubled. It’s definitely gotten busier with many more meetings. [It’s been] less planning and writing from my standpoint, and more meetings.”
The unnamed corporate lobbyist who talked with The Hill Times agreed that the level of direct communications happening between lobbyists and public officials does not directly correspond with how much work is happening in the government-relations sector.
“I think more of the work [lobbyists are] doing is reportable,” he said. “They’re actually sitting in rooms with MPs a lot more often than they used to, for example, rather than working on written submissions. There’s all kinds of work that people do outside of meetings with designated public office holders.
“I don’t think it’s any kind of a master plan that everyone will now work 80 hours a week where we used to work 40. I don’t sense that at all. It’s just you’re spending more time having those personal conversations [with public officials] than you might have had in the past.”
This corporate lobbyist said many lobbyists last year might have been spending more time dealing with individuals within departments or regulatory agencies who are not considered designated public office holders and for whom communications do not require a report.
At the department level, those occupying the positions of “ministers, ministerial staff, deputy ministers and chief executives of departments and agencies, officials in departments and agencies at the rank of associate deputy minister and assistant deputy minister, as well as those occupying positions of comparable rank” are considered designated public office holders and reports are required when communicating with them, according to the lobbying commissioner’s website. MPs, Senators, and those in the offices of official opposition leaders—in the House and Senate—also require reports when lobbied.
Mr. Powers said he sees no sign of “a hiring spree” in the federal lobbying sector in response the more robust activity taking place, though there is some movement of people in the sector.
“Sometimes, we’re looking to get people who have a better knowledge of the government,” said Mr. Powers, who is vice-chairman of Summa. “I’ve seen some people move around and some new people who weren’t lobbying—one or two, that I can think of—get in. But I can’t see a hiring spree.”
Mr. Gray said that while the Liberal government is taking a lot of meetings right now, that could change as it gets further into its mandate.
“They want to meet with everybody as long as they can,” he said. “I still think that might change as we start to move a couple of years down that road and they are starting to think about the next election and what they still need to accomplish. A couple of years from now, they might say, ‘Well okay, we’ve heard from this group and that group. We know where they are. We may not meet with them with the same amount of frequency as we did in the first year or two of our mandate.”
The Hill Times
Lobbying data
Communication reports April 2015 April 2016
Overall 1,003 2,022
Consultant 252 611
Corporate 215 445
Organizational 536 966
Registered lobbyists April 2015 April 2016
Overall 5,180 5,150
Consultant 803 857
Corporate 1,707 1,627
Organizational 2,670 2,666
Lobbying registrations
Overall 3,037 3,334
Consultant 2,225 2,527
Corporate 305 305
Organizational 507 502
Source: Federal lobbyists registry