Federal lobbying hit a record high last fiscal year, industry watchdog says

Lobbying hit an all-time high in Ottawa during the last fiscal year — and lobbyists secured more conversations with the Prime Minister's Office last year than in previous years — says a new report from the industry's watchdog.

On Monday, Commissioner of Lobbying Nancy Bélanger released her annual report covering the 2022-2023 year in lobbying.

Under the law, lobbyists must report their oral and arranged communications with certain public office holders to the commissioner. Consultant lobbyists must also report any communications relating to the awarding of a federal contract.

During the last fiscal year, 30,681 communication reports were filed with Bélanger's office — a 19 per cent increase over 2021-22 that set a new record.

"I think it is likely because there [have] been a lot of projects and policy issues and decision makers are opening the doors to those who want to provide their views and information and data in order to have all the information they need to make the right decision," Bélanger told CBC News.

"What's important is that people know who is lobbying whom and about what, and as long as that is happening, there is absolutely nothing wrong."

Bélanger reported that the Prime Minister's Office was lobbied 1,602 times over 2022-2023 — sometimes with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau present. The PMO was directly lobbied 1,117 times the previous year.

Trudeau spoke with lobbyists alone on 56 occasions, according to the report.

The numbers show ministers and MPs were also lobbied more last fiscal year than in the year before. Lobbyists recorded more than 2,100 communications with cabinet ministers and 11,511 with MPs from various parties.

Senators were lobbied 1,421 times during the past fiscal year while senior public servants — including deputy ministers and associate deputy ministers — were lobbied nearly 6,000 times.

The commissioner's report found the top five subject matters in those reports were the environment, economic development, energy, industry and health.

Bélanger's report also suggests the industry is booming. The last fiscal year, which runs from April to March, set new records for both active registrations and active lobbyists.

Nearly 8,500 individual lobbyists were registered at least once during the year. About 2,800 were employed by corporations and just over 4,000 were employed by an organization.

As of March 31, Bélanger was reviewing about 30 cases and investigating four.