Are You Lobbying?

Copyright 2012, Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP

Originally published in Blakes Bulletin on Financial Services, February 2012

When communicating with public office holders at any level, it is important to ensure that you and your advisers are complying with lobbying legislation.

Lobbying regulatory regimes are becoming increasingly common across Canada, and are growing in their complexity. The federal government, most provinces and a growing number of cities have lobbying regimes in place, with new regimes and enhancements of existing regimes being put in place each year. These regulatory regimes typically apply both to "consultant" lobbyists (such as a government relations firm, lawyer or any other person who is paid to communicate with public office holders), and to "in-house" lobbyists (such as senior executives who, together with their colleagues, spend the equivalent of a significant portion of one person's time communicating with public office holders).