ARCHIVED - Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada

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Section I: Overview

Commissioner's Message

This is the second and final Departmental Performance Report (DPR) from the Office of the Registrar of Lobbyists (ORL). On July 2, 2008, the Lobbying Act came into force, creating the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying (OCL) which will be responsible for producing next year's report. Because the Lobbying Act came into force prior to the finalization of the ORL's 2007-2008 DPR, the Interim Commissioner of Lobbying is the reporting authority on this report rather than the previous Registrar of Lobbyists.

In order to comply with the Lobbying Act, lobbyists require access to a registration system that incorporates the new legislative and regulatory registration requirements. Significant modifications were needed with respect to the Lobbyists Registration System, as a result, considerable time and effort were spent to prepare for the new registration requirements set out in the Lobbying Act. It is expected that this additional work will further enhance the system's usability thereby contributing toward improved transparency.

The 2007-2008 reporting period observed increased levels of activity regarding the administration of the Lobbyists Registration Act and the Lobbyists' Code of Conduct. Consequently, the ORL processed a total of 10 110 registrations compared to 9 656 registrations in 2006-2007. This represents an increase of five percent in the number of registrations processed for the three categories of lobbyist: consultant, in-house (organizations) and in-house (corporations).

The Investigations Directorate initiated 17 new cases in 2007-2008 and continued to make progress on existing cases opened in previous years. Moreover, it is encouraging to note that lobbyists are now registering in increasing numbers without sole reliance on increased compliance measures.

I am confident that all of the activities of the ORL during the reporting period will contribute significantly to the implementation of the Lobbying Act. By providing lobbyists and public office holders with the necessary tools and information they need to meet their new obligations, the Office is working to enhance the confidence of Canadians in the integrity of federal government decision-making.

Karen E. Shepherd
Interim Commissioner of Lobbying

Management Representation Statement

I submit for tabling in Parliament, the 2007-2008 Departmental Performance Report (DPR) for the Office of the Registrar of Lobbyists.

This document has been prepared based on the reporting principles contained in the Guide for the Preparation of Part III of the 2007-2008 Estimates: Reports on Plans and Priorities and Departmental Performance Reports:

• it adheres to the specific reporting requirements outlined in the Treasury Board Secretariat guidance;
• it is based on the department's Strategic Outcome and Program Activity Architecture that were approved by the Treasury Board;
• it presents consistent, comprehensive, balanced and reliable information;
• it provides a basis of accountability for the results achieved with the resources and authorities entrusted to it; and
• it reports finances based on approved numbers from the Estimates and the Public Accounts of Canada.

Karen E. Shepherd
Interim Commissioner of Lobbying

Strategic Outcome and Program Activity Architecture Structure for the ORL

The ORL's strategic outcome reflects the Office's mandate and vision and is linked to the Government of Canada Outcome Areas.

The Program Activity Architecture (PAA) for the ORL is its basis for reporting to Parliament. The PAA describes the relationship between the activities the Office undertakes and the strategic outcome it is working to achieve, in order to produce results for Canadians. In addition, the PAA also provides the framework that links the expected results and performance measures to individual program activities, clarifying why the ORL is doing what it does and how it will measure that results are achieved. Finally, the PAA also serves as a framework to link the financial resources to each program activity, indicating how the ORL manages the resources under its control to achieve its intended outcomes.

The graph below represents the ORL's PAA, used as the basis for reporting in this document.

Summary Information

Reason for Existence

The mandate of the Office of the Registrar of Lobbyists is derived from the Lobbyists Registration Act. Its purpose is to ensure transparency and accountability in the lobbying of public office holders with a view to contributing to confidence in the integrity of government decision-making.

Financial Resources (in $000)

2007-2008
Planned Spending	Total Authorities	Actual Spending
4 333	4 598	4 187

Human Resources

2007-2008
Planned	Actual	Difference
24	22	(2)

Departmental Priorities

Name	Type	Performance Status
1. Update the Registry and enhance its transparency	Ongoing	Successfully met
2. Increase awareness of Act and Code requirements	Ongoing	Successfully met
3. Pursue enforcement of the Act and the Code and communicate the results achieved	Ongoing	Successfully met

Program Activities by Strategic Outcome

	Expected Results	Performance Status	2007-2008 (in $000)		Contributes to the following priority
			Planned Spending	Actual Spending
Strategic Outcome: Transparency and accountability in the lobbying of public office holders contribute to confidence in the integrity of government decision-making.
Registration of Lobbyists	7 500 active registrations	Successfully met	2 395	2 489	Priority No. 1
Education and Research	10% increase over previous fiscal year	Exceeded expectations	899	881	Priority No. 2
Reviews and Investigations under the Lobbyists Registration Act and the Lobbyists' Code of Conduct	At least 80% of complaints received result in the initiation of an enforcement action	Successfully met	1 039	817	Priority No. 3

Departmental Performance

Operating Environment and Context

In 2007-2008, the operating environment of the Office of the Registrar of Lobbyists (ORL) continued to evolve as the Office prepared for the coming into force of the Lobbying Act on July 2, 2008.

The lobbying provisions of the Federal Accountability Act required a considerable amount of management time to prepare for the increased responsibilities to operate as an independent office. In the 2007-2008 reporting period, the ORL continued to buy services such as finance, human resources and information technology from external providers. The Department of Justice remained as our provider of legal services.

The 2007-2008 Human Resources Plan was more comprehensive than the previous year's. The Plan was monitored and amended in recognition of the changing environment and the requirement to ensure that sufficient resources were available to prepare for the implementation and enforcement of the Lobbying Act. By the end of the reporting period, the staff complement of the ORL had grown to 23.

The ORL completed its first Estimates cycle as a department during the 2007-2008 reporting period. This included submission of a Departmental Performance Report, Supplementary Estimates, Report on Plans and Priorities and Main Estimates. Through the Estimates process, Parliament provided the ORL with an increase in resources for 2007-2008 and future years.

Over the 2007-2008 reporting period, significant staff time was required to continue the development and enhancement of the work to the Lobbyists Registration System commenced in 2006-2007. In addition, much of the ORL time and effort were expended to develop information documents such as the Implementation Notices for the coming into force of the Lobbying Act. Staff also provided advice to officials in the Treasury Board Secretariat on the development of policy and regulations related to the implementation of the lobbying provisions of the Federal Accountability Act.

Performance

Despite operating in an environment of uncertainty and change, the ORL continued to make substantial progress in fulfilling its mandate. The ORL's strategic approach to the administration and enforcement of the Lobbyists Registration Act (Act) is reflected in its three priorities during the reporting period:

• Update the Registry and enhance its transparency
• Increase awareness of the Act and Lobbyists' Code of Conduct (Code) requirements
• Pursue enforcement of the Act and Code and communicate the results achieved

Additional improvements to the existing Lobbyists Registration System were implemented in 2007-2008, although fewer than the previous reporting period. Because of the additional reporting requirements in the Lobbying Act, the Lobbyists Registration System had to be completely re-designed and its architecture overhauled in order to ensure that it could process a significantly larger number of transactions such as the new monthly reports. In addition, efforts were directed at solving data management and efficiency issues related to these new volumes of transactions.

The total number of active registrations on March 31, 2008 were fewer than the number reported in the previous year. It is difficult to infer anything from the minor drop in total registrations as totals varied from month to month. Despite the small drop in total active registrations noted at the end of the fiscal year, the ORL recorded higher numbers of information requests and website visits during this reporting period. Notwithstanding a busy year preparing for the implementation of the Lobbying Act, the ORL was able to successfully meet its expected result for the program activity, Registration of Lobbyists, by processing 7 821 active registrations over the fiscal year.

The ORL continued to ensure that both lobbyists and registrants were aware of their obligations under the Act through various means such as advisory letters, the purpose of which is to inform potential lobbyists that their activities may be lobbying and require registration under the Act, information sessions, e-mails to registrants and by updating information on the ORL website. As well, presentations and meetings were held with groups of senior officials from various departments and agencies to explain the impact of the Lobbying Act on public office holders. A comprehensive communications and outreach strategy was also developed and employed to ensure that obligations in the Lobbying Act were clearly understood. As a result of these actions, the ORL exceeded its expected outcome for the Education and Research program activity. In 2007-2008, 156% more outreach activities were undertaken compared to the number of activities in the previous fiscal year.

While awareness of obligations is key to ensuring that most lobbyists register and act in an ethical manner, it is important to demonstrate that evidence of enforcement exists. The ORL conducts its reviews and investigations in private. Upon completion of these, written responses are sent to the parties involved. In cases where the complaints were made public by the complainant, the ORL's written responses to these complainants tended to be made public as well. Thus, both lobbyists and the public are made aware that the ORL acts upon received complaints. The program activity, Reviews and Investigations, successfully met its expected result of initiating enforcement action on at least 80% of received complaints in 2007-2008.

As a result of a decision rendered by the Federal Court on March 10, 2008 which questioned the Registrar's authority to investigate cases involving breaches of the Lobbyists Registration Act, work was temporarily suspended on most ongoing administrative reviews and investigations.

Details of performance against each of the three priorities are included in Section II of this report.

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