A Glimpse Into Ottawa's Professional Lobbyist Industry
Is this how government really works?
There are currently more than 7,000 professional lobbyists listed in the Canadian government’s lobbyist registry. Since 2009, records containing the details of nearly 300,000 meetings between lobbyists and government officials have been entered into the official database.
I’ve been exploring that rich data as part of a much larger project I’m currently working on. But I thought I’d share a very small slice to give you a sense of how things work in a poorly-understood industry that's at the center of the modern political process.
I’d like you to meet the Pembina Institute. Their mandate is to:
“advocate for strong, effective policies with a multi-faceted and highly collaborative approach to support Canada’s clean energy transition.”
Their clean energy advocacy takes the form of research, “convening and collaboration”, and providing experts for media commentary. According to CRA filings, the institute - a registered charity - received $1,688,403 in federal and provincial funding in 2022, of which the federal portion was $1,503,542.
According to data associated with the lobbyist registry, 18 Pembina employees who were registered as lobbyists met with federal Designated Public Office Holders (DPOHs) on a total of 291 occasions in the time between January, 2023 and May, 2024. Here’s a list of the five positions held most frequently by federal officials who met with Pembina:
In Canada, federal public servants are not required to accept meetings with lobbyists: they’re free to decide using their own judgement. Nevertheless, since January, 2023, 12 MPs, 10 assistant deputy ministers, and 6 senior policy advisors chose to meet lobbyists (from all organizations, not just Pembina) at least 100 times each.
Was that the best possible use of government time?
Is it right that so much official decision-making likely happens as a result of such non-public, discretionary meetings?
Is it right that the federal government provides $1,503,542 a year to an organization (Pembina) that employs 18 individuals who spend at least part of their workdays lobbying the very government that pays their salaries?
Is it legal for a registered charity to engage in partisan political activities to this degree?
Government funding "non government organizations" is essentially the action of criminal organizations more resembling a conspiracy than lobbying. Virtually all NGOs are engaged in attempting to influence governments and those that take government funding should not qualify for tax exempt status and the approval of each individual organizational funding should come from parliament. Wearing them out this way might keep them from their normal legislating activities resulting in the ratchetting up of the leviathan state.
David: When you talk about the growth of lobbying you can be mislead by the statistics. The growth does not actually measure the increase in the volume of lobbying, it reflects LRA regulations changes that require more people to register who spend most of their working day doing other things besides lobbying. Most of these people are not full- time or even part-time lobbyists.
Your point on the Pembina Institute in relevant. Government departments funds groups who then can also lobby them on some issues. This used to be more common but it still occurs.
An interesting question is where do you go to get funding if you are a non-profit think tank. Some groups are well supported by business interests but other do not have the access to those sources because the public policy issues they champion do not attract business funding. Often Government becomes a place they can get funding for research projects. Government can also look for outside expertise from academia but professors also rely on government funding. Think tanks and Policy Institutes need funding to survive. Many of them will not attract enough funding from corporations or individuals to survive, so they go where they can. Is that good or bad?