Wednesday, November 14, 2001

OTTAWA - Today Democracy Watch called on federal Industry Minister Brian Tobin to strengthen the Lobbyists Registration Act and enforcement of the law to reduce the undemocratic and undue influence of some lobbyists. Minister Tobin recently released his response to the June 2001 Industry Committee report on the law, saying that the government will not act on most of the Committee's key recommendations to strengthen the law and enforcement (Please follow links to Tobin's response on following webpage: http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/SSG/lr01081e.html)

While Minister Tobin recognizes that the unclear definition of lobbying in the law makes enforcement difficult and should be changed, at the same time he claims that "the system works well" even though the survey conducted by KPMG Consulting on behalf of the government found that 50% of consultant lobbyists, 20% of organizational lobbyists, and 15% of corporate lobbyists surveyed knew of lobbyists who had failed to register.

Minister Tobin also rejects the Committee's recommendation, unanimously supported by witnesses who testified before the Committee, that Ethics Counsellor Howard Wilson should be replaced as the enforcer of the Lobbyists Code of Conduct because it conflicts with his role as administration of the Conflict of Interest Code for Public Office Holders. Since April 2000, Democracy Watch has filed 7 complaints about lobbyists violating the Lobbyists Code by putting a public office holder in a conflict of interest, but the Ethics Counsellor has only ruled on 3 of the complaints.

For example, two of the outstanding complaints are: 1. from April 2000, the complaint about Barry Campbell, a lobbyist, who organized a fundraiser that raised over $70,000 for junior finance minister Jim Peterson, and; 2. from March 2001, the complaint about Réné Fugère, an unpaid aide to the Prime Minister who, according to clear evidence, was being paid to lobby but failed to register as a lobbyist as required by the law (he was never charged). And in his most recent ruling, issued on November 6, 2001, the Ethics Counsellor gave his stamp of approval to federal lobbyist BCE Inc.'s gift in September to the Prime Minister of a golf game with Tiger Woods, a gift worth at least $13,000, and very likely many thousand dollars more (Please contact Democracy Watch or the Ethics Counsellor for a copy of the Ethics Counsellor's ruling).

"Many lobbyists are not registering as required by the law, disclosure requirements are not detailed enough, some lobbyists are breaking ethics rules for lobbyists, the ethics rules are too weak, and the Ethics Counsellor has proven to be ineffective in enforcing the law and the ethics rules," said Duff Conacher, Coordinator of Democracy Watch. "When is Minister Tobin going to open his eyes to the serious, ongoing problems with the lobbying law and enforcement of the law?"

Democracy Watch's proposals to strengthen the law are supported by the 30 citizen groups in the nation-wide Government Ethics Coalition, representing 2 million Canadians in total. In addition to calling for the replacement of the Ethics Counsellor with an independent commission that reports only to Parliament and has full powers to investigate allegations of ethics violations (as in most provinces and territories, and as recommended by the Industry Committee), the Coalition calls on the federal government to make the following key changes to the lobbying law and enforcement:

1. require Ministers and other senior public officials to disclose who they meet or communicate with, to ensure that all the activities of lobbyists are tracked;
2. require lobbyists, even if they are not paid, to register if they are obtaining or providing information not readily available to the general public or if they spend longer than a specific time period lobbying;
3. prohibit Ministers from becoming lobbyists for 5 years after they leave government;
4. prohibit lobbyists from having any business connections with anyone who does work with the federal government;
5. require for-profit corporations to register their lobbying in the same way that non-profit organizations are required to register (Minister Tobin says he will only "consider the implementation" of this proposal);
6. prohibit lobbyists from serving in senior positions on campaigns of political parties or candidates (as is prohibited in Maryland and New Mexico);
7. require lobbyists to disclose how much they and their clients are spending on their campaigns (as required in 33 U.S. states (the Industry Committee's report recommended studying this proposal, but Minister Tobin rejected the recommendation));
8. eliminate the business tax deduction for lobbying expenses; and
9. remove the loophole that allows lobbyists not to register if they are invited to lobby (the Industry Committee recommended removing this loophole, but Minister Tobin made no commitment to remove it).

Industry Minister Tobin has refused to meet with representatives of the Government Ethics Coalition to discuss the above proposals.