City Council Meeting – Oct 17,2023
London City Council rejected a motion to have City staff look into the feasibility and cost of an online publicly available mandatory lobbyist registry. The staff report would have included registration rules, potential exemptions, enforcement mechanisms and general provisions.
A motion was initially brought forward in the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee (SPPC). A vote at City Council was requested to see if any councillors had changed their minds. As of the date of the meeting the following Municipalities in Ontario had Lobbyist Registries.
Toronto
Peel Region
Ottawa
Brampton
Hamilton
Niagara Region
Vaughn
Burlington
Pickering
Collingwood
“[This is to] inform people and be transparent with our work,…. We need to peer into that black box.. We are not a small city anymore we’re a big city”
Councillor Ferreira (Video Timestamp 47:50)
“[people] did not come up at the door for me during the election and there’s no correlation in any data that I seen that says a lobbyist registry increases voter turnout”.
Councillor Lewis (Video Timestamp 57:33)
“When you talk about lobbying versus advocacy I’m not aware of a single individual in London who makes their living as a paid lobbyist because we’re not the federal government, we’re not the Ontario legislature”.
Councillor Lewis (Video Timestamp 1:00:17)
“The purpose of it is to give additional information to the public. There’s no attribution of wrong doing here. It’s perfectly legal to lobby, it is perfectly legal in most cases to donate to political campaigns … this just gives the public more information about what’s going on”
“The perception that members of the public have, erodes confidence in our work”
“I disagree that this overlaps with the Integrity Commissioner because what this does is without a person having to file a complaint it gives them the ability to go online and check a database to get information“.
Councillor Trosow (Video Timestamp 1:02:21)
NOTE 1: Subsequent to the meeting additional municipalities have launched lobbyist registries
City of Guelph (launched October 2024, enforcement in place starting Jan 2025)
Region of Waterloo
Town of Caledon
NOTE 2: It is the responsibility of the person or organization doing the lobbying to register their activity, not the elected official or city staff being lobbied
Watch the meeting at the “London Ontario City Council” Youtube channel
Often the same office holds the duties of lobbyists registry and Ethics Commissioner. These represent cost savings versus having separate offices or services.
The City of Guelph decided to go for a fee-for-service model that avoids hiring dedicated city staff. They rely on contracted services that are expected to cost $10,000 to $20,000 annually. (Source)
From a Niagara Region report the cost for having dedicated internal staff could range from $55,000 up to $250,000 for Vaughn. Vaughn went with a separate in-house Lobbyist Registrar, administrative staff report, own website and office overhead. (Source)
Interested in more reading? Good external source HERE
Are there any advocacy community groups that attempt to influence votes or municipal decisions against registering as a lobbyist?
Are Lobbyist Registries directly linked to trust in government? And does trust in government lead to greater public participation including voting?
Does the request for a staff report to detail options and costing for a lobbyist registry represent superficial virtue signalling or does it address a real concern for a municipal level government?
Are lobbyist registries only applicable for larger governments like the provincial and federal governments?