The Business of Government Policy

How think tanks, lobbyists, and professional consultants impact the way we're governed

Trigger alert: this post contains no suggestions of government corruption or stupidity. You’ve been warned.

---

So you want to change the world. Well what’s it gonna take?

In our small corner of that world, successful structural change often means influencing the people in Ottawa who control policy. In theory, that can happen for free. Although that assumes you know exactly which people have their fingers on the right policy buttons and, once you get through their door, that you’re very persuasive.

When those skills don’t describe what you’ve got, you turn to the professionals. There are, as it turns out, many hundreds of businesses and organisations operating within a multi-billion dollar industry that exists to bring your dreams to life. Perhaps none of this is news to you, but I was surprised to learn just how complex - and lucrative - the policy-for-hire business can be.

Of course, the first tool in your change-the-world kit is your vote. But the odds against there being a viable local candidate who’s also trusted by the prime minister’s office and whose values happen to be a match with your aspirations are…well count all the galaxies in the universe and all the stars within those galaxies and all the planets revolving around those stars and all the grains of sand on all of those planets and then multiply that number by something else equally large and then…never mind.

Ahh. But you could improve your odds of success by discussing your ideas at family gatherings and among your work colleagues and asking them to vote your way. I guess there’s a chance that might work.

Or you could just vote because that’s the right thing to do but avoid attaching too much significance to the results.

Which helps us understand why people who are serious about winning are attracted to alternatives like lobbyists, government relations consultants, and think tanks. Practitioners of those fine arts provide specialized approaches to help you access and influence policy makers. Let’s understand each of those sectors, one at a time.

Lobbyists

If you’ve been hanging around here long enough, you’ll know that I’ve already written about the federal lobbyist registry. That’s the government database where lobbyists and the political and civil service insiders they meet with submit detailed records of all their interactions. The system is a master class of government transparency and thinking about it never fails to bring a spot of warmth to even my cold, cynical heart. My previous posts on the topic addressed one potential misuse of the system, but overall it seems to work quite well.

Registry data shows us that more than half of the 7,300 registered lobbyists work full-time for non-profit organisations, one third work for corporations, and the rest are “consultant lobbyists”. But what they all share in common is a mandate to convert organisational capital into influence over government policy.

Government Relations Consultants

Sometimes they describe the work they do as facilitating government relations, sometimes it’s public affairs and advocacy, and sometimes it’s about forging strong relationships. But what these consulting firms all do is guide their clients through the labyrinth of the civil service and arm them with the most effective tools for persuasion.

Given their skill sets, it’s hardly surprising that such companies might also offer their services to government departments. In fact, of the dozen or so Canadian consulting firms I explored, three of them had, combined, won around $30 million worth of federal contracts over the past few years. In the larger scheme of things, that’s not a huge number, and working for the government is clearly nothing more than a sideline for most of this sector.

Instead, their fancy Bay Street offices and expensive websites seem to be happily funded by the money they earn guiding mega corporations, massive non-profits, and foreign governments through the policy advocacy process. Judging by the sheer number of industry players and their longevity, I’m comfortable assuming that at least some of them have discovered the secret sauce for making change happen.

Think Tanks

This one inspired a bit of an awakening for me on two levels. For one thing, I had no idea just how many “think tank” research institutes existed and how much money was being spent on them, And I’d never given much thought to how much of the work think tanks typically do is geared towards influencing governments.

As registered charities, think tanks’ annual filings are public, so I was able to examine the financial profiles for some of the country’s largest institutes. From that data, I was able to identify four common business models:

1. Endowments. It’s common for institutes to report “long-term investments” which, in one case, topped $54 million. Why would such organisations bother keeping so much money squirreled away? Well in that particular case, the annual capital gains from such an investment would pretty much cover their salary and administration costs. Which means that the people (or organisations) who initially donated the money for the investment were effectively funding the operation in perpetuity.

2. Individual reports. Some think tanks report significant income from the sale of goods and services. What goods and services could research institutes sell? Probably bespoke, on-demand research. What could clients do with such on-demand research? Some might use the insights to guide their institutional strategies. But others might channel the research to be published as books, white papers, or op-eds for major newspapers. This last approach is far more common than I would have imagined, and it’s almost always designed to influence both public and official attitudes to policies of one flavour or another.

3. Institutional memberships. In some cases, a few thousand dollars a year might buy your organisation full access to a think tank’s paywalled research. That would be out of range for most individual readers, but I’d guess larger institutions, corporations, and universities might open their wallets for the right basket of content.

4. Consulting. Some think tanks report professional and consulting fees as a major source of income. These institutes might frequently publish high-quality research on public platforms and leverage the consequent reputations for insightful thinking to attract paying clients.

Of the think tanks I examined, it’s worth noting that all but three (Fraser Institute, Macdonald-Laurier Institute, and Montreal Economic Institute) received government funding. Remaining financially independent from governments of all levels would seem to be an important ingredient for producing unbiased research.

None of those activities are necessarily inappropriate. In fact, I’m sure they’re often efficient ways to connect fresh and helpful ideas with the people with the power to implement them.

But for a lot of reasons, I think it’s useful for all of us to understand how the policy sausage is actually made. Perhaps the realization that making an impact is possible could inspire greater innovation and more focused strategic engagement in the parts of the political process that are most likely to work