Currently, only lobbyists working more than 28 hours a month are required to publically register with the commissioner of the Commissioner of Lobbying.
https://lobbycanada.gc.ca/app/secure/ocl/lrs/do/guest
A lot of lobbying in Canada is undisclosed.
Let’s say you are a lobbyist for an AI company. The AI minister (yes, that’s a real thing) wants to introduce a bill that you really don’t like.
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You write a letter to the AI minister to invite him for dinner. (1hour)
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You spend one morning to prepare what you will talk about (3hours)
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His office calls you to change the date (15 minutes)
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You call back his office to confirm the date and location (15 minutes).
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You go to the restaurant wisth the minister (3 hours)
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He agrees to meet you one week later in his office to discuss changes to the bill (2 hours).
That’s less than 9 hours and 30 minutes. It’s below the 28 hours threshold so you don’t have to disclose anything.
On January 19, 2026, Canada will become a slightly less corrupt country.
The threshold below which no registration is required will change from 28 hours to 8 hours over a four-week period. More people will be required to register.
The system is still a disaster, but at least it’s an improvement.
Not really.
Lawmakers in a democracy can’t possibly be experts on all the fields they make laws about. Without any lobbyists at all, they wouldn’t know what kinds of laws any organizations (whether for-profit or not) would like to see passed. This would likely cause worse laws to be passed.
Ultimately lobbying is just (parts of) the population attempting to influence what happens in politics, which is what is supposed to happen in a democracy.
In some cases what you say may be true, but not in all.
Always nice to hear from a student in a grade 4 classroom.
FYI, expertise behind new laws is al the level of a Deputy Minister, not some moron who got elected.
Lobbyists are not experts. Well maybe only experts in making more money by pushing deregulations. Lobbying sdo not gives advices they try to force policies on politicians
You’re thinking of an advisor. You pay an advisor, you get paid by a lobbyist.
No it fucking isn’t! Lobbying is people getting paid to attempt to influence what happens in politics, which is what makes it corrupt.
" the population " can’t afford a lobbyist. Corporations can. And that’s who gets to make the laws. It is a corrupt system, where politicians are given gifts, and vacations, to vote a certain way.
There’s nothing for the people in those talks.
There are lobbyists for non-profits (that you can donate to if you agree with their goals) too.
And that’s problematic. Those without the means to contribute have less lobbying power. That’s inherently not democratic.
Yes, as the system os what it is, if an organization want something done they need to play the game as it stands.
That doesn’t mean that’s a good thing
In the US, the reason corporations hire lobbyists is that it has a ROI that is bigger than most of their main businesses.
And that return comes from tax revenue. So it is much more expensive for us to allow lobbyists.
That “expertise” angle used to make some sense, before we created long distance communication. But today, politicians have staff, and the staff have access to the internet and telephones. If they need an expert, they can just call one.
Again, it would be much cheaper to hire researchers for politicians than to allow lobbying to continue.
I see no reason why anyone who isn’t a constituent should have easy access to a politician.