Lobbying in British Columbia

Those recommendations include harmonizing the threshold for registration, removing the requirement to report the intent to lobby and substituting for it the requirement to report actual lobbying, the dates the lobbying took place and the names of any high ranking public office holder lobbied. [...] We circulated the paper broadly to everyone we thought might have an interest in the issue, including Members of the Legislative Assembly and other public office holders, all the lobbyists who had ever registered in BC, industry associations, chambers of commerce, labour organizations, organizations across the non-profit sector, the Law Society of British Columbia and the BC chapter of the Canadia [...] Anything that raises perception and legitimizes and makes the profession more acceptable to the public would be useful.” One industry association supported this idea, saying that the “benefits of having a code of conduct primarily relate to promoting the integrity of government decision making …. Codes of conduct assist in promoting the legitimacy of the lobbying profession by ensuring lobbyists f [...] In my opinion, the law, and the role of this office, should be focused on those aspects of the work of lobbyists that relate most directly to the public interest and the democratic process—namely, the interactions between lobbyists and public officials. [...] Recommendation #2 The role of the ORL in regulating lobbying should be limited to those aspects of the work of lobbyists that relate directly to the interactions between lobbyists and public officials.