In this issue...

• New Colleague - Welcome Saba!
• The More You Know: Reporting Government Funding in Registrations
• Just the Stats

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New Colleague – Welcome Saba!

The Office is very pleased to welcome our new Inquiries Officer, Saba Ghaderi, to the lobbyist registration team! She joins our small team of registry experts who work every day to answer queries and clarify the registration requirements under the Lobbyists Registration Act, 1998.

Saba has a Hons. BA in Political Science with a minor in Ethics and Law from UofT Mississauga. Before joining us, Saba worked in bail court and ran a successful small business. She is excited to join the Office because the work done here intersects with her professional ethos.

Since joining the team, Saba has found that her go-to resource is the Guide to Lobbyists Registration Act. “It’s a great tool for lobbyists to use, especially if they’re new to lobbying they can use the Guide to submit a polished and clear registration and stay on top of their deadlines. I also think that it’s a great tool for the public to familiarize itself with the requirements of the Act."

Saba enjoys assessing registrations and using her analytical skills to support the rest of the team. After work, her hobbies include dancing (a nod to her Kurdish heritage), taking her dog Albus on early morning walks and eating a hot bowl of Ramen while reading Harry Potter for the 100^th time.

You can reach Saba and the rest of the OIC lobbyist registration team at lobbyist.mail@oico.on.ca if you have questions about Ontario’s lobbyist registry or the Act.

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Reporting Government Funding in Registrations

With the Ontario government’s new fiscal year beginning on April 1, 2023, this is a good time to review the requirements under the Lobbyists Registration Act, 1998 to report government funding in your registration(s).

Government funding includes a grant, transfer payment, wage subsidies, forgivable loans or other funding arrangement received by a client, a for-profit business, or a not-for-profit organization from any level of government.

All government funding must be disclosed, not just the funding used for the lobbying activity itself.

Government funding does not include tax credits, rebates, or money the government pays for goods and services, under a fee for service arrangement, repayable loans or loan guarantees and money going directly to the client, organization or business’s employees.

Disclosing government funding

The requirement to disclose the funding information on your registration is based on when it is received from any government, in that government’s previous fiscal year and includes funding from any source or level of government in Canada.

For example, if funding was received from the Ontario government during its fiscal year April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023, the funding would be required to be listed on your registration in this fiscal year.

The Lobbyist Registrar’s Interpretation Bulletin “How do I report government funding?” has additional information on how to report government funding. You can also contact the Office by email for clarification on your specific government funding situation.

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As of March 31, 2023, there were 3,404 registered lobbyists and 3,348 active registrations on the Ontario lobbyists registry.

The registry consists of two types of lobbyists - consultant and in-house - with the rules and requirements under the Act differing for each type.

Consultant lobbyists are required to have a registration for each client, with 581 consultant lobbyists holding 2,778 of the active registrations.

The remaining in-house registrations are held by for-profit and not-for-profit entities. In-house registrations are filed in the name of the senior officer of the company or organization and will list the names of all employees, paid officers and/or paid directors who lobby in one registration.

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