I rose in the Legislature to speak to Bill 8, the Lobbyists Registration Amendment Act, 2017. This Bill is an excellent start to updating how lobbyists interact with elected officials and senior office holders. We still have a way to go!
[Transcript]
Okay, alright. Thank you, hon. Speaker, for this opportunity to rise today to speak to Bill 8, the Lobbyists Registration Amendment Act.
The 2017 election was fundamentally an election about trust. Do British Columbians trust each of the political parties and we, as elected officials, to act on their behalf? Sadly, we’ve seen trust in government and in politicians consistently erode over the past several decades to the point where politicians are now one of the least-trusted professions. We, as elected officials, have a duty to change that. This is a duty that I and my colleagues take very, very seriously.
Lobbying reform is one of a suite of commitments to rebuild trust in government that formed one of the central pillars of the B.C. Greens’ election platform. It stood alongside campaign finance reform, electoral reform, increased transparency and accountability of government performance. To rebuild public trust, we must demonstrate through actions that we as elected officials put British Columbians, not special interests, first in our decision-making.
This bill is also important to me because it was one that originated in our platform. The B.C. Greens were the only party that clearly committed, in our platform, to broad-based lobbying reform. In signing the supply and confidence agreement with the government, we insisted that the first steps of lobbying reform be implemented in this, the first, sitting of the Legislature. So we’re very happy to be able to stand and speak to this bill today.
We recognize that the government may need to do some more consultation — in fact, wide consultation — to arrive at a more comprehensive set of lobbying reforms. Yet, there were clear, important changes that we could make now, without delay, to bring our lobbying industry into line with other jurisdictions.
In our consultations with the NDP, we made it clear that we had three priority outcomes for our lobbying reform: one, increased transparency of lobbying and accountability of lobbyists; two, reduce undue influence of special interests on government decisions; and three, bring B.C. standards in line with other jurisdictions.
This bill, as it stands now, represents one piece of a larger number of reforms that the B.C. Greens will push forward to improve our lobbying industry and to help restore public trust in government. The bill takes an important step forward, and so, I will support it. However, as I have said in the media, we also believe more comprehensive reforms are needed and this bill on its own, I don’t believe, goes far enough.
I’ll briefly review the priority outcomes and speak to the ways in which this bill advances these outcomes and the steps we must take to move us forward.
First, increasing transparency of lobbying and the accountability of lobbyists. In her report, Lobbying in British Columbia: The Way Forward, the former registrar of lobbyists, Elizabeth Denham, notes that lobbying is a natural and important part of the democratic landscape.
As the report reads:
“Lobbyists come from all walks of life. They are employees and contractors of non-profit associations seeking additional funding for out-of-school care, local businesses seeking changes in law enforcement policies, multinational corporations seeking to increase investment opportunities, chambers of commerce seeking business tax exemptions and environmental groups seeking to protect indigenous species of plants. They are employees and contractors of any organization seeking to influence public policy decisions.
“The truth is that lobbying is an important part of the political decision-making process. Politicians and other public servants cannot be expected to know and understand every angle of an issue, and lobbyists bring valuable information and expertise to the decision-making process.”
Yet a problem arises when the lobbying occurs in the back rooms and without adequate transparency. People start to wonder who is influencing whom and doubt whether their elected officials are truly representing their interests. Indeed, the Lobbyists Registration Act, which regulates lobbying in British Columbia, is designed to promote greater transparency so British Columbians know who is lobbying whom, on what topic and for what purpose.
Right now lobbyists are required to register who they intend to lobby and who they have lobbied. Unfortunately, this approach has undercut the goal of transparency. The problem is that the registry doesn’t differentiate between the two so the public doesn’t actually have any way of knowing which meetings actually occurred. Some lobbyists will even submit an undertaking to lobby every MLA, just to cover their bases. Where it was intended to increase transparency, the registry in some ways actually helps obscure the real and meaningful lobbying that occurs.
For this reason, I would like to see the requirement to disclose one who intends to lobby be removed from the act and replaced with the requirement to disclose who one did lobby, within ten days of that lobbying occurring. This approach offers the added benefit of real time disclosure so that the public doesn’t have to wait for updated filings six months after a meeting may have occurred. The registrar made this recommendation in a report, and we should ensure that we do what we can to bring it to fruition.
Two, reduce undue influence of special interests on government decisions. At the heart of restoring public trust in government is the need to reduce the influence of special interest in our political system. The Election Amendment Act takes an important step forward in this regard by eliminating corporate and union donations and limiting individual contributions to $1,200 per year.
The Lobbyists Registration Amendment Act also takes an important step forward by introducing a two-year prohibition on lobbying for former senior public office holders. Prohibitions of this nature have become commonplace in jurisdictions across the country. They come from a recognition that senior public office holders often have access to relationships and information that can give them, the organizations that they lobby for, an outsized influence.
Indeed, there are many examples in B.C. of the revolving door that has occurred between government and the lobbying sector, which only serves to undermine public trust in government. A two-year prohibition on lobbying, while not a perfect fix, will help limit the likelihood that former senior public office holders are able to use sensitive and confidential information to influence their lobbying efforts.
Three, bring B.C. standards in line with other jurisdictions. Sadly, over the past decade, B.C. has fallen behind most other jurisdictions on lobbying. For instance, federally, the government had imposed a multi-year prohibition on lobbying, back in 2008. Here we are, nearly ten years later, finally bringing our standards in line.
Indeed, the registrar’s report on lobbying in British Columbia outlines 13 recommendations, most of which are not included in this legislation. These recommendations are significant, and they should be considered, and they should be acted upon.
They include adopting “those parts of a code of conduct that strengthen transparency in lobbying, support existing ethical standards for public office holders and enhance public decision-making processes”. Requiring lobbyists to disclose to public office holders that they are lobbying, on whose behalf they are lobbying and to identify any third-party interests that are funding or directing their lobbying.
Tightening up prohibitions on lobbyists offering gifts and benefits to public office holders. Requiring “designated filers to identify other persons or organizations that control or direct the lobbying activities and-or have a direct interest in the outcome of the lobbying, including agencies that fund or direct activities of an organization or client represented in a lobbying effort.” And requiring a mandatory review.
These recommendations are all designed to ensure greater transparency and accountability, to establish minimum standards for ethical conduct of lobbyists to ensure that our lobbying regime is robust enough to help restore the public’s faith in their government.
I am pleased that the government has committed to doing a comprehensive review within the next year to consider these additional elements. That review could build on and yet go beyond the great work that the registrar of lobbyists has done in her report. It could start with the recommendations of the registrar, and yet it should recognize that reforming our lobbying industry is also a matter of restoring public trust in government, and that must include a public conversation about the role that lobbying plays in our province and the measures that would offer British Columbians even a greater sense of confidence in the lobbying process.
Of course, the expectation with the review is that it will culminate in a bill that will enact the recommendations that result from this review. In the meantime, can we strengthen this now? Perhaps. But, after all, the most important thing is that this minority government can do is earn the trust of British Columbians. I and my colleagues will continue to bring forward concrete, actionable proposals to the table to strengthen British Columbians’ trust in their government. HÍSW̱ḴE
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