Recently announced changes that will dramatically increase how many organizations or corporations could need to register under the Lobbying Act are intended by the federal lobbying commissioner to improve transparency, although some argue the increased administrative burden will be significant, particularly for smaller groups.
“These changes … are going to increase the number of companies and organization subject to registration—particularly smaller players, local small businesses, non-profits—who have never engaged with Canada’s lobbying regime, [who] are now, all of a sudden, going to find themselves, I think, caught in this new regime,” said Hunter Doubt, president of the Government Relations Institute of Canada, who is also Expedia Group’s head of government and corporate affairs. “The bigger burden is going to be for those smaller organizations … that have never considered themselves lobbyists—who do very little of that work—now having to track and pay close attention to everyone within their organization on just how much work they are actually doing on a consecutive four-week basis.”
On July, 16, the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying issued an interpretation bulletin announcing an amendment that will greatly lower the threshold for when organizations or corporations are required to register their lobbying activities with designated public office holders (DPOHs).
Under the current regime, registration is required if the government-relations activities of in-house lobbyists represents 20 per cent or more of the duties of a single, full-time employee—which is known as the “20 per cent rule.” Estimates provided on the lobbying commissioner’s website have put “20 per cent” of one employee’s time over a four-week period as representing a registration threshold of between 30 to 32 hours spent lobbying, based on a 40-hour work week.
The new interpretation bulletin lowers that threshold to only eight hours in a rolling four-week period.
A corresponding interpretation bulletin also prohibits former designated public office holders from engaging in lobbying for eight or more hours in any four-week period during the five-year restriction that applies to all former designated public office holders after they leave office.
The changes won’t affect consultant lobbyists, who already must register any undertaking to lobby on behalf of a client.
The new interpretation bulletins will take effect on Jan. 19, 2026.
Doubt called this lower threshold a major shift in Canada’s lobbying regime. He argued that anything beyond “a truly one-off conversation” with federal officials in 2026 will require registration.
Lobbying Commissioner Nancy Bélanger told The Hill Times that the current 32-hour threshold allowed for considerable lobbying to occur without needing to be reported, which she called a hinderance to transparency. She said the new threshold was chosen after reviewing other jurisdictions, and because eight hours represents a full work day.
“I set out to interpret what does the word ‘significant’ mean? And it means noteworthy or notable,” said Bélanger. “I just decided that eight hours, in other words, a full day of meetings with decision-makers, makes it notable, and I believe that it requires registration.”
In response to concerns about the increased administration burden, Bélanger said it should be expected that anyone who lobbies, as well as the heads of organizations and corporations that hires people to communicate with officials, should be subject to a regime that ensures transparency and ethical conduct.
“The requirement to register is truly a minimal effort to ensure that the regime works as it should. In other words, so that Canadians know who’s lobbying their decision-makers and about what,” she said. “The purpose of this bulletin is really to enhance transparency, and in my view, registration is not difficult. It does not take much time.”
Besides interpretation bulletins issued by the lobbying commissioner, changes to Canada’s lobbying regime can be implemented through a review of the Lobbying Act. The last review of the act was conducted in 2012, which did not result in any changes. Although a review of the act is mandated to occur every five years, reviews were not conducted on schedule in 2017 or 2022. A review of the Lobbying Act can be initiated through an order of reference to do so from the House, or as a result of a motion from a member of the House Ethics Committee.
Bélanger said she’s been asking for a review of the act since she was appointed to her role as lobbying commissioner in 2017.
“I have wanted a review of the act, [and] I’m a perpetual[ly], positive, hopeful person that someday it will happen, but because there is no sign of a review of the act, I decided that it’s been too long that transparency has been hindered, and therefore I issued this bulletin. I had said that I was going to do it, so I’m moving forward with it,” she said.
Doubt said that lobbyists knew that a change to the registration threshold was coming. Bélanger has talked before about her desire to lower the registration threshold, including during an appearance before the House Ethics Committee in November 2024. Even so, Doubt said that the threshold being reduced as low as eight hours came as a surprise to many.
“We support compliance and transparency. Those are foundational, obviously, to our work and we respect that,” he said. “But if Parliament isn’t prioritizing changes to the Lobbying Act, and as far as we know there was no public push for these new interpretations, it raises some questions on if there’s really a need to make a significant change through interpretation alone.”
Another important change relates to how organizations are expected to calculate if an employee’s lobbying activities constitutes a significant part of their duties. Currently, that calculation includes not only the time spent actually communicating with designated public office holders, but also the time spent in preparation, which includes researching, drafting, and travelling.
Under the new interpretation, travel time will no longer be required in the calculation for significant part of duties, according to Bélanger.
Jasmin Guenette, vice-president of national affairs with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), agreed that the lower registration threshold means increased administration burden for smaller businesses.
“Businesses in Canada at the moment are facing many different challenges with the tariff situation between Canada and the U.S. The cost of doing business has increased tremendously in the last couple of years. There are many challenges, and obviously adding more red tape means adding more cost on business operation [and] is always a challenge,” he said. “That’s why we feel it is really important that the Office of the Commissioner take proactive measure to reach out to the business community, to reach out to stakeholders, so that businesses are aware of the newer requirements, but obviously, if they have to report more often … this can add to the administrative burden and cost businesses will be having to deal with.”
Bélanger said her office will be conducting outreach during the coming months to help inform people about the changes. She also encouraged corporations and organizations to call the Lobbying Commissioner’s Office and ask for clarification, saying, “it costs nothing to call us.”
She told The Hill Times that, at this time, she doesn’t expect her office to require any additional staff or an increased budget to deal with the increase of registrations once the changes come into force.
“Once organizations and corporations start registering, my team is going to have to approve these registrations and help them. For sure, we’re all expecting a surge at the beginning, but I think it’s work that we can handle right now,” she said.
Alan Fraser, a principal at Lobium Law, called the lower registration threshold a wake-up call for anyone dealing with public office holders.
“A lot of it comes down to training, and I find that when you’re dealing with public or private companies, the employees don’t actually know what lobbying is or what the requirements are. So, the first thing is training,” he said. “The second item is a compliance program in place to deal with lobbying activity—to ensure that it’s monitored and tracked, and allows that entity to ensure their registration is up to date with the lobbying commissioner and the lobbying registry.”
Fraser argued that the lower threshold will almost require a default registration, arguing it would be impossible for companies to monitor whether or not they are lobbying “without a really rigorous compliance protocol in place.”
In response to the interpretation bulletin, lawyers from Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP issued a bulletin of their own, which included a recommendation that businesses and other entities with employees who may be engaged in lobbying should implement practices to track the time spent lobbying by all employees, and consider whether they will be required to register under the new interpretation.
Suzanne Sabourin, a counsel in the advocacy group of Gowling WLG’s Ottawa office, told The Hill Times that the increased administrative burden could be felt by even the larger businesses.
“Of course everybody believes in the principles of the law, but it does require more effort, more administrative effort, to comply,” she said. “You have to have a keen understanding of the law and of its implications to make sure that you get a full grasp of what’s expected of you.”
Sabourin said, when it comes to lobbying, the issues can be complex when you “start looking at it from a very granular level of detail.”
“When you start looking at different circumstances that companies deal with, that’s where the … practicalities of how that translates in your registration and your monthly reports comes into play, and therefore the importance of training and protocols to make sure that you’re staying within the parameters of the law,” she said. “Personally, I’ve given training to employees of our clients … but we can expect now that we’ll need to fine tune.”
Jcnockaert@hilltimes.com