Information & Resources for Lobbyist Registration in Ontario

Issue 4

April 2019

 

New Work for our Office

On May 1, 2019, the Office of the Integrity Commissioner will take on new responsibilities related to public sector ethics. This is due to a merger with the Office of the Conflict of Interest Commissioner, which has been providing conflict of interest advice and direction to a broad range of public servants under the Public Service of Ontario Act, 2006 since its creation in 2007.

Our Office has worked with the Office of the Conflict of Interest Commissioner on many issues in the past, including joint training for senior officials of public bodies and providing input to government officials on updating ethical rules.

With this new responsibility, the Office of the Integrity Commissioner will work to establish a centre of excellence for ethics in Ontario’s public sector, with the goal of providing clear and consistent ethical guidance and information for elected officials, public servants and lobbyists.

 

Is Your Senior Officer Lobbying?

In-house Lobbyists: when listing your lobbying employees, you must also list the senior officer if he or she is lobbying.

The registrations for in-house lobbyists are always created and submitted in the name of the entity and the entity’s senior officer, i.e. the CEO of the entity, not the most senior officer responsible for managing the lobbying activities, such as the Vice President or Director of Government Relations. This applies even if the senior officer is not involved in any lobbying activity.

And what if the senior officer is also lobbying? The registration must include that individual’s name and title in the list of active lobbyists. It isn’t sufficient just to have the registration in the senior officer’s name – they need to be identified as being a lobbyist, too.

 

Did you know that we have helpful checklists for the registry and general compliance with the Lobbyists Registration Act?

There are checklists for each type of lobbyist on our website.

Find the checklists on our Resources page.

 

When creating a new initial registration on behalf of a consultant lobbyist, a primary contact can save time by making a copy of an associated consultant lobbyist's existing registration. When using this feature, here are a couple of things to remember:

  • The ‘Copy Registration’ feature is only available to primary contacts who have been designated to manage multiple registrations for associated consultant lobbyists;
  • The ‘Copy Registration’ feature only works when creating an initial registration and the registration you are copying is already published on the registry.

If you are using the ‘Copy Registration’ feature to create a new registration, remember to review all the fields in the registration. Don’t forget to add the lobbying commencement date (the date the consultant lobbyist first communicated with an Ontario public office holder on behalf of the client) and check the section listing former public offices held for accuracy, as this information may be different for each lobbyist.

 

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