Lobbying Act, Regulations and Code of Conduct

Legislative and Regulatory Changes

On April 30, 2008, the Designated Public Office Holder Regulations and proposed Lobbyists Registration Regulations relating to the new Lobbying Act were published in the Canada Gazette, Part II. A preliminary version of the Regulations was published in Part I of the Canada Gazette on January 5, 2008 for consultation purposes. Interested individuals had until February 4, 2008 to provide their views concerning the proposed regulations.

The draft regulations concern changes to the registration system and reporting requirements for lobbyists communicating with the federal government. They include, but are not limited to:

• the form and manner of all returns to be filed, including the new monthly returns for consultant lobbyists and in-house lobbyists;
• the type of lobbying activity to be reported on in a monthly return;
• the details on the subject-matter and other information that may be required in a monthly return.

The only parts of the Federal Accountability Act (FedAA) relating to lobbyists that came into force when the FedAA received Royal Assent on December 12 were sections 88.1, 88.11 and 88.2, which contained provisions concerning members of transition teams.

The Lobbying Act and its related Regulations came into force simultaneously on July 2, 2008. The OCL has prepared the following documents in order to provide lobbyists, registrants, public office holders and the public with information in relation to the new provisions of the Lobbying Act:

• An explanatory booklet (356 KB, 6 pages) has been prepared in order to summarize the key modifications to the federal lobbyist registration regime brought forward with the coming into force of the Lobbying Act (in PDF format).
• PowerPoint presentations have been prepared in order to help Designated Public Office Holders, Consultant lobbyists and In-house lobbyists (corporations and organizations) famaliarize themselves with their new reporting requirements under the new Lobbying Act.
• A series of nine Implementation Notices have been developed in order to highlight key elements of the Lobbying Act and to provide concrete examples of different elements brought forward with the Lobbying Act (in PDF format).
  1. Coming-Into-Force of the Lobbying Act (263 KB, 1 page)
  2. Designated Public Office Holders (360 KB, 2 pages)
  3. The Five-Year Prohibition on Lobbying (363 KB, 2 pages)
  4. Monthly Returns (361 KB, 2 pages)
  5. Communication with a Designated Public Office Holder (361 KB, 2 pages)
  6. Members of Boards of Directors and Members of Organizations (247 KB, 1 page)
  7. Contingency Fees (250 KB, 1 page)
  8. The New Lobbyists Registration System (347 KB, 2 pages)
  9. Miscellaneous Changes to Lobbyists Registration Requirements (356 KB, 2 pages)
• Interpretation bulletins are issued in relation to sections of the Act that are not easily interpreted. As such, the Commissioner has issued an interpretation bulletin on the term "comparable rank" that provides very specific criteria that will allow easy identification of "comparable" DPOHs.

Additional information relating to the Lobbying Act will be posted on this web site as it becomes available.

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