Proposed Changes to the Lobbyists Transparency Act
There are a number of changes that we would like to see made to the Lobbyists Transparency Act (LTA). These changes would be beneficial as they are directly targeted at increasing the ease of compliance for smaller businesses, charities, and NGOs: these would be simple alterations to make that would support, rather than compromise, the LTA’s core values of openness and transparency.
Change how gift values are calculated
At present British Columbia is the only province that requires lobbyists to factor in all manner of additional or miscellaneous costs into the value of gifts they give to public officeholders (POH). Changing it to be simply the market value of the good/service/ticket minus all other extra charges, expenses, or related costs would simplify reporting and compliance.
Raise the gift limit
At present British Columbia is out of line with the other provinces with respect to the gift limit placed on lobbyists. With rising costs and inflation this makes it practically difficult to engage with public officeholders, even for just a single annual event. Raising it to a limit of $200 would prevent accidental infractions and bring it in line with the other more restrictive provinces like Ontario and Saskatchewan.
Change the requirements to register as an in-house lobbyist
At present BC is the only province which requires you to register as a lobbyist for any amount of lobbying. By raising the threshold to 50 hours of lobbying per year for an individual/organisation, it would exempt many smaller charities/NGOs who lobby only very rarely from going through the effort and expense of registration and monthly reports. This would prevent accidental infractions of the LTA by smaller organisations.
Change the time limit to register as an in-house lobbyist
Across the rest of Canada, the requirement to register as an in-house lobbyist after the start of lobbying activities is two months/60 days. Bringing British Columbia in line with the other provinces on this matter would help prevent accidental infractions of the LTA.
Drop requirements to log every single interaction with a public office holder
Other provinces in Canada do not require you to report any single interaction with a POH, just merely that you are active lobbying them. A reasonable compromise would be instead of logging every single interaction and its context separately, to instead report the number of times you engaged with a POH, and the general topics/subject matter discussed across those various interactions.
Change monthly returns to quarterly returns
BC is the only province to require monthly reports on lobbying. Changing to quarterly (or every three months) returns on lobbying activity would bring BC closer to requirements in other provinces without sacrificing transparency, as well as aligning with the quarterly returns on receipt of government funds.
Change reporting of gifts
With a shift to quarterly returns, it would be more practical to simply report gifts after they have been given – with their respective value and context – rather than also reporting when they were proposed and their proposed value.