In this issue...

• The More You Know: Renewal vs. Making a Change
• Guidance for Lobbyists on Gifts
• Compliance Check: Keeping up with legislation in your registration

Lobbyists have an obligation under the Lobbyists Registration Act, 1998 to ensure that each registration is up to date – that it reflects what issues you are bringing to the attention of public office holders, who is lobbying, and which public office holders you are targeting. The best way to do this is by using the “Change My Registration” feature on the website.

Some lobbyists will update their registrations every few months, just to be sure that all of the information supports their current activity. And then they receive an automated reminder that the registration is due for renewal. “Why?” they wonder. “I just submitted an update a few weeks ago.”

This situation occurs because the Act requires 1) that when there is new information about a lobbying activity, the lobbyist updates the registration within 30 days; and 2) that depending on the type of lobbyist, the registration is renewed at a prescribed time. For consultant lobbyists, this is annually. And for organizations and for-profit entities, it is every six months. This renewal is required even if you just submitted an update.

It’s best to think of these updates and renewals as separate requirements under the Act. Many lobbyists will regularly review their registrations and provide frequent updates as the lobbying activity and targets change. Renewals for them will often not result in any changes to the registration since it is fully up-to-date.

Hot tip: regular review of the registration will make the renewal process quick and smooth.

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Review the Gift Guidance

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Keeping up with legislation in your registration

Lobbying about new legistration? Here are five tips to ensure your registration is up-to-date:

1. Review all the categories in the Lobbying Activity section of the registration form to determine which category you need to fill out. Hint:  Hovering your cursor over the  in the registration form provides a description of each category.
2. If you’re lobbying about a newly introduced bill, this should be indicated in the “Bill or resolution” section of your registration. Your lobbying activity should provide a complete summary of what you hope to achieve with your lobbying efforts.
3. You can find the bill’s name and number and where it is in the legislative process on the Legislative Assembly’s website.
4. Once a bill has been passed, you may need to lobby about its regulations, or the development of a policy or program related to the new law. If that’s the case, you need to move and update your lobbying activity to those categories in your registration. If your lobbying about the bill is done, the activity should be removed from your registration.
5. All lobbyists have 30 days from the date of the change to update their registrations. If you are lobbying on a new piece of legislation, that means you must update your registration within 30 days of the date the bill was introduced.

Read more about how to describe your lobbying activity in your registration.

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