Ethics commissioner calls for reform of Alberta lobbyist rules

The province should create a communication registry for lobbyists to address what she says is a lack of transparency, Alberta's ethics commissioner says.

Marguerite Trussler's office put forward a number of recommendations for changes to the Alberta Lobbyists Act as part of a review of the legislation currently underway by the standing committee on Alberta's economic future.

The act must be reviewed every five years, and the committee is expected to submit a report with its recommendations to the legislature by September.

"Proper transparency is not in place in Alberta," Trussler said while speaking to the committee last month.

Her top request is a public communication registry that would require lobbyists to disclose direct communications and meetings with senior public office holders.

"Not having one gives rise to people asking, 'What do you have to hide?'" Trussler said, adding that creating such a registry would cost nothing and be a simple process.

Trussler said the federal government and British Columbia already have these types of registries, and that other jurisdictions are moving in a similar direction.

Another proposedchange is to narrow the exemption to lobbying rules for non-profits toapply only to groups that provide tangible public services in specific ways.

This would prevent other types of non-profits from "hiding behind" the exemption, said Alberta Lobbyist Registrar Lara Draper, who is with Trussler's office.

Draper said most Canadian jurisdictions don't have any exemption for non-profit groups and calls Alberta's broad exemption a "serious gap in accountability and transparency."

Trussler is also advocating to lowering the threshold for having to register as an organization lobbyist from 50 hours annually to 20.

She told this committee this is more in line with what other jurisdictions are doing, and said she knows from her own past work as a lobbyist that fewer hours is appropriate.

"Frankly if it takes you 50 hours to get your message across you're not very good," she said. "A really good lobbyist can do a lot of effective lobbying in way less time than even 20 hours. It's not that big of a burden."

Other proposed changes to increase transparency include:

• Simplifying and closing potential loopholes around "prohibited gifts";

• Requiring disclosure in lobbyist registrations of gifts, favours or benefits offered to public office holders within the last 12 months;

• Removing the requirement for organization lobbyists to file semi-annual renewal returns;

• And shortening the time for organization lobbyists to file initial returns.

Trussler's office also proposed several recommendations to make the rules less complicated for lobbyists, along with a number of technical amendments.

Opposition from affected groups

While dozens of organizations and individuals provided written feedback to the committee, several organizations that would be affected by the change made oral presentations most of which urged legislators not to adopt Trussler's recommendations as proposed, or even to loosen current rules.

Alberta Chambers of Commerce president and CEO Ken Kolby said changes made to lobbying rules back in 2018 created a lot of extra work for his organization and some of its member organizations, and that he'd like to see some of those changes reversed.

Kolby said his group's advocacy efforts are non-partisan, and that it and local chambers across the province were transparent before increased reporting requirements came into effect under lobbying rules.

"It does not improve transparency or accountability. It is simply unnecessary red tape that diverts limited resources from vitally important community building activities and initiatives," he said.

Among his requests to the committee was an askto return the lobbying time threshold to 100 hours, rather than follow through with Trussler's request to reduce itto 20 hours.

The committee also heard from non-profit umbrella organizations who worry tighteningupwho isexempted from lobbyist rules will mean community groups won't have the resources to continue to meet demand for public service work.

After hearing from speakers, the committee passed a motion to have all the recommendations received compiled into a list for consideration ahead of beginning deliberations and work on the report.