The House Ethics Committee began a long overdue review of the federal Lobbying Act on Feb. 12. While it’s a chance to shake up Canada’s lobbying regime, which hasn’t been significantly updated in more than a decade, lobbyists are pushing back on some of the potential changes.
‘It’s a security concern for people like me who are in the public eye and who deal with angry constituents all the time,’ says Alberta Senator Paula Simons of an Elections Alberta data leak that exposed the personal details of nearly three million people.
On April 23, the House Ethics Committee held its third meeting as part of a review of the Lobbying Act, which regulates the lobbying of designated public office holders with the goal of ensuring transparency and accountability.
The investigation concluded ‘the true intent’ of Christiane Fox, then-deputy minister at the department, was to help Bjorn Charles ‘find new employment, and this occurred under her watch through the creation of a position in her department to fit [his] needs.’
Fifteen MPs travelled on a total of 19 sponsored trips last year, totalling more than $78,000 in comped expenses. This marks the second year of decline for junkets since the post-pandemic peak in 2023 and subsequent rule changes.
The absence of public rulings in lobbying investigations is ‘a recipe for corruption,’ says Duff Conacher. But the lobbying commissioner says the Lobbying Act and the Privacy Act require that all investigations be conducted in private.
Democracy Watch’s Duff Conacher says the gaps in voter identification could allow for foreign interference in the NDP leadership race, but the party says it has ‘established safeguards’ in place to protect the vote.
Conservatives have concerns about a clause buried in Bill C-15 that grants cabinet ministers the power to exempt any individual or firm from nearly any federal law—excluding the Criminal Code—for up to six years.
Ethical consistency is not a moral add-on to foreign policy, but a prerequisite for stability, credibility, and long-term economic outcomes.
‘When Canadians hear that the prime minister has divested, I think what they expect is that there’s been a sale of those controlled assets,’ Conservative MP Michael Barrett told the committee.
Both Prime Minister Mark Carney and Canada-U.S. Relations Minister Dominic LeBlanc have conflict-of-interest screens in place.
The department reported 120 ‘founded’ cases in 2024-25, of which 31 were for misconduct and inappropriate behaviour, nine for financial mismanagement, five for harassment and violence, and four personnel security violations.
The ‘significant part of duties’ registration threshold will be lowered from 32 hours to eight, starting in 2026.
One expert says there is ‘no way’ for the prime minister ‘to not be in conflict,’ emphasizing that the path ahead is being transparent about how conflicts of interest will be mitigated, not trying to remove them altogether.
The noise about the PM’s blind trust can turn people off from politics, particularly those in sectors where they were compensated commensurately for their performance.
The first annual report from the new Senate Ethics Officer says the office is struggling with ‘strained’ resources and unable to keep up with Senator’s requests.
The Lobbying Act’s ‘significant part of duties’ threshold—also known as the 20-per-cent rule—needs to go, according to Lobbying Commissioner Nancy Bélanger.
Pierre Poilievre is anchoring his ethics reform plan in what he calls ‘Accountability Act 2.0,’ a nod to the original Federal Accountability Act introduced in 2006 by Stephen Harper’s Conservative government.
‘If we believe as a society that the system doesn’t work … then we need to have a policy conversation,’ says York University’s Ian Stedman.
It is not just what is happening to erode transparency further south in the U.S. and Mexico that should be of concern here: it’s what has been going on over the years in Canada to erode transparency.
So far, 32 MPs have disclosed sponsored trips in 2024 worth a little more than $250,000, far below the $844,000 reported by this time in 2023.
There is only one answer: Hand over the documents, if only to show that Pierre Poilievre is wrong when he says you’re out to ‘axe the facts.’
Lobbying Commissioner Nancy Bélanger plans to update some rules if her seven-year term is renewed, but industry observers question the timing and efficacy of her proposed updates.
Parliament is at a standstill over a set of records from a now-defunct agency, but has yet to go after the many instances where obstructed or embarrassing records from existing agencies are highly exempt.
Twenty-one governmental departments and agencies responded to a June 10 order for documents by redacting or withholding information, while ten entities submitted unredacted documents.
