St. Catharines considering lobbyist registry to enhance municipal transparency

In April, St. Catharines councillors were mired in debate about the implementation of a bylaw to govern short term rentals, and the heavy-handed approach the City was taking that generated thousands of dollars in fines, and penalized many small business owners.

During one particular council meeting, Mayor Mat Siscoe remarked that, “Having sat in a number of meetings with representatives from the hotel/motel industry, I think they would prefer that short-term rentals did not exist. At the last meeting they were quite pleased with the enforcement activities that our staff have undertaken…They were quite happy with the direction the City was taking.” 

That could be about to change. 

At the most recent St. Catharines City Council meeting, Councillor Bruce Williamson (Ward 6 - Port Dalhousie) asked for a report on the possibility of creating a lobbyist registry for St. Catharines.

Councillor Williamson described the registry as a “safeguard tool” that would improve the level of openness at the municipality and enhance transparency and accountability. He noted that the Niagara Region has such a registry in place.

Lobbyist registries were a part of the accountability and transparency provisions introduced to the Municipal Act in 2006 in wake of a judicial inquiry (the Bellamy Report) into allegations of bribery and conflicts of interest resulting from the City of Toronto computer leasing scandal. 

While other accountability provisions, such as the appointment of an integrity commissioner and development of a councillor Code of Conduct are now mandatory for municipalities, a lobby registry remains optional (except for Toronto, where it is compulsory).

According to Open Council, the independent, non-partisan website that provides information about municipalities, less than a dozen of Ontario’s 444 municipalities have a lobbyist registry.

If St. Catharines were to institute this system; it would be the first of Niagara’s lower-tier municipalities to do so. The upper-tier Region Municipality of Niagara (Region) passed a bylaw in April 2022 to establish and maintain a Lobbyist Registry. 

Lobbying, general speaking, is the act of attempting to influence a public official on an issue. The Bellamy Report stated that “lobbying is best understood broadly as an organized effort to influence the development or ultimate fate of anything the government does: pass a law, develop a policy or program, award a contract, or give away money”.

The Region’s bylaw expansively defines lobbying as, “any communication with a Public Office Holder by an individual who is paid or who represents a business or financial interest with the goal of trying to influence any legislative action including development, introduction, passage, defeat, amendment or repeal of a bylaw, motion, resolution or the outcome of a decision on any matter before Council, a Committee of Council, or a staff member acting under delegated authority.”

The Region’s bylaw also notes that a communication can be in the form of a meeting, email, letter, phone call or a meaningful dialogue or exchange and can happen in a formal or informal setting.

While lobbying often has negative connotations of payoffs in exchange for desired votes, the Region’s Lobbyist Registrar, David Boghosian, in a September 2023 training seminar to Regional Council, attempted to dispel the notion that lobbying is a “dirty word”:

“Lobbying is an everyday fact of life in politics. Properly regulated lobbying can serve an effective purpose in educating the public office holders passing legislation on different perspectives and insights.” 

Lobbying activity does not include communications at a council or committee meeting by delegates; communications at a public process such as a public meeting, hearing, open house or consultation meeting; complaints or compliments of past council decisions; a constituent expressing an opinion to a councillor with no financial or business interest; municipal staff, in their official capacity, discussing official business with Council members or other public officials; requests for information of public officials; and communications through the normal course of a municipal application process.

If St. Catharines wishes to create a lobbyist registry, it will need to establish an appropriate bylaw, which would define lobbying activity and lobbyist types; specify when those who lobby would need to file with the municipality and determine what penalties, if any, would be imposed on those who violate the provisions of the bylaw.

In addition, the municipality would have to establish a Lobbyist Code of Conduct; hire or contract a Lobbyist Registrar who would “perform in an independent matter” the duties assigned; and develop the lobbyist registry, which would be available for public inspection “in a manner and during the time that the municipality may determine.”

In the case of the Region, the defined lobbyist types are a Consultant Lobbyist (an individual who lobbies for payment on behalf of a client}, an In-house Lobbyist (an individual who lobbies on behalf of an employer or business) or a Voluntary Unpaid Lobbyist. Lobbyists must file within five days of a communication with a councillor and the bylaw imposes progressive penalties of a 30-day ban from lobbying for first contravention and 60 days for a second violation. The Lobbyist Registrar has unilateral authority to impose longer bans if further violations occur.

The Region has their lobbyist registry online for greater public access. The registry identifies the lobbyist, the lobbyist type, who they lobbied, the related subject matter of their lobbying efforts and when the registration took place. Boghosian, during his 2023 presentation, admitted that some of the entries in the Region’s registry were not as transparent as they could be, but that was an issue “for another day”.

Examples of active lobbyists at the Niagara Region.

(Niagara Region)

The implementation of the Region’s lobbyist registry has not been without conflict.

The possibility of the registry was first broached in 2020 and was followed by a series of staff reports. Eventually, the Region’s Corporate Service Committee approved the implementation of the lobbyist registry, subject to eventual budget approval. The only dissenting vote at the committee was Regional Council and Mayor Jim Diodati (Niagara) who felt the process would be “weaponized”, leading to costly investigations. Regional Council formally approved the related bylaw in April of 2022. Securing the services of a lobbyist registrar, however, proved more difficult. 

The first procurement process was canceled when no proponents passed the technical benchmarks. The second procurement process failed to secure any submissions. As a result, last year, staff recommended, and Council approved, a sole source contract with Mr. Boghosian, who had 30 years of municipal law experience and serves as the integrity commissioner to a number of municipalities. 

With Boghosian finally retained as the Region’s Lobbyist Registrar, he presented to Council members at their September 7, 2023 Committee of the Whole meeting. After a 75-minute presentation, a number of councillors were stunned by what they heard. 

Regional Councillor Kim Craitor (Niagara Falls) characterized the presentation as “illogical”, inferring that the rules would have a chilling effect on dialogue between elected officials and the general public. Regional Councillor Fred Davies (Port Colborne) echoed Craitor’s comments, suggesting that councillors would have to “retrain ourselves on how we deal with our constituents.” Regional Councillor Bob Gale (Niagara Falls) bemoaned that councillors had not received the PowerPoint slide deck beforehand because he would have “contacted Toronto” to make sure that Region’s lobbyist provisions met the provincial criteria.

Boghosian reminded Council that he was not the architect of their bylaw. He pointed out that Council could always make changes to the bylaw, but he was of the opinion that the provisions contained were in keeping with the similar municipal lobbyist registry bylaws throughout the province. 

Daryl Barnhart, the Regional Chair’s Chief of Staff confirmed that the Region’s bylaw followed “best practices” and its intent was not to limit interactions between councillors and the public but to increase transparency. He indicated that there had already been numerous registrations on the Region’s registry, with the majority of lobbyists having previous experience with other municipal registries or registries at the provincial and federal levels.

Regional Councillor Leanna Villella (Welland) asked about the persistent emails regional council members receive from animal rights activists opposed to the Region licensing horse drawn sightseeing carriages. 

Boghosian explained that the bylaw would not be applicable if the activists were only making presentations at Council or committee, but if they were attempting to influence council members on a legislative outcome via email it would constitute lobbying under the Region’s bylaw. He pointed out that while there was no legal obligation on the part of councillors to inform possible lobbyists of their need to register, he hoped that councillors would do so out of a “moral duty”.

Despite the rocky reception his presentation received, last month Boghosian’s contract as the Region’s Lobbyist Registrar was extended to 2027. So far, he has seemingly not had much to do.

The Region’s Lobbyist Registry bylaw included a provision for an educational period before the enforcement of penalties and sanctions. Due to the inability to secure lobbyist registrar services, the education period was extended until April 14, 2024, the two-year anniversary of the passing of the bylaw. 

There have yet to be any filings regarding alleged contraventions of the Region’s bylaw.

No timeline was provided as to when St. Catharines staff might report back. Councillor Williamson did indicate that in his discussions with City staff, it was mentioned that St. Catharines might be able to “tie in” to the Region’s existing efforts, which the mayor described as “a positive”.

While there’s no guarantee that St. Catharines will implement a lobbyist registry, it is one of the few Niagara municipalities that discloses council member declarations of conflicts of interest on its website.

If the municipality does eventually set up a lobbyist registry it would be in keeping with one of the preambles in the Region’s bylaw, that highlights “it is reasonable for Members of Council and the public at large to know the nature and amount of legitimate lobbying of local government.” 

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