A lawsuit alleging the Ontario Integrity Commissioner failed to properly penalize offenders of the Lobbyist Registration Act (LRA) was dismissed by a Divisional Court in November.

Sometime after March 20, 2022, a hearing for an appeal of this decision filed by the plaintiffs, Democracy Watch, should be heard.

Nine lobbyists found to violate the LRA were not penalized and did not challenge the rulings. Hence, their identities were never made public. Six of those lobbyists lobbied for over a year before registering. Three other lobbyists were found to have lobbied Ontario Premier Doug Ford and his cabinet in violation of a section of the LRA prohibiting the creation of a real or potential conflict of interest through lobbying.

The Divisional Court found insufficient serious legal issues were alleged to create standing to make the judicial application. Additionally, the Court found Democracy Watch’s application for judicial review conflicted with the privacy of the nine lobbyists.

Beginning January 30, 2022, all federal agencies are required to incorporate a $15 minimum wage in new contract solicitations. On April 27, 2021, President Joseph R. Biden had signed an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay $15 per hour for employees working on or in connection with a federal government contract. On November 22, 2021, Secretary of Labor Martin J. Walsh announced the final rule implementing the president’s order.

By March 30, 2022, all agencies will need to implement the minimum wage into new contracts. Federal agencies are also directed to implement the higher wage into existing contracts when the parties exercise their option to extend such contracts.

Contractors and subcontractors must certify they will meet this condition requiring the minimum wage. This certification is a condition of payment to the contractors from the government. The order applies, with certain exceptions, to any new contract; new contract-like instrument; new solicitation; extension or renewal of an existing contract or contract-like instrument; or exercise of an option on an existing contract or contract-like instrument. This order does not apply to grants; contracts, contract-like instruments, or certain specific type of agreements with Indian Tribes.

Starting January 1, 2023, the minimum wage will be adjusted annually, but not lowered, by the U.S. secretary of labor based on a consumer price index formula and rounded to the nearest multiple of $0.05. For tipped workers, the minimum wage mandated by the order is $10.50 per hour beginning January 30, 2022. Beginning January 1, 2023, tipped workers must receive 85% of the wage rate in effect for non-tipped employees, rounded to the nearest multiple of $0.05. Then beginning January 1, 2024, and for each subsequent year, tipped workers must receive 100% of the wage received by non-tipped worker, eliminating the difference between the type of workers. Adjustments must be considered by employers of tipped workers who do not receive a sufficient additional amount on account of tips to equal to the minimum wage of non-tipped workers. If a state or municipality has a higher minimum wage, the Executive Order does not excuse noncompliance with the laws requiring the higher wage.

A committee of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta that is conducting a review of the province’s lobbying laws is seeking input from stakeholders.

The committee, the Standing Committee on Alberta’s Economic Future, is an all-party committee of Assembly members assigned to review the Lobbyists Act. It has invited lobbyists and organizations to make written submissions directly to the committee offering their individual experiences with the Act and any possible recommendations.

The deadline for written submissions is Thursday, December 2, 2021.

On September 9, President Joseph R. Biden Jr. signed two executive orders dealing with COVID-19: one requiring mandatory vaccinations for all federal employees and another requiring federal contractors and subcontractors to do the same. Biden, in a televised speech about the orders, said the first executive order “will now require all executive branch federal employees to be vaccinated — all. And I’ve signed another executive order that will require federal contractors to do the same.”

The order concerning contractors requires executive departments and agencies, to the extent permitted by law, ensure that contracts and contract-like instruments include a clause that the contractor and any subcontractors (at any tier) must incorporate into lower-tier subcontracts. The clause must specify that a contractor or subcontractor must, for the duration of the contract, comply with all guidance for contractor or subcontractor workplace locations published by the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force. By September 24, 2021, the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force will, as part of its issuance of Task Force Guidance, provide definitions of relevant terms for contractors and subcontractors, explanations of protocols required of contractors and subcontractors to comply with workplace safety guidance, and any exceptions to Task Force Guidance that apply to contractor and subcontractor workplace locations and individuals in those locations working on or in connection with a federal government contract.

With certain exceptions, this order applies to any new contract; new contract-like instrument; new solicitation for a contract or contract-like instrument; extension or renewal of an existing contract or contract-like instrument; and exercise of an option on an existing contract or contract-like instrument.

The order does not apply to grants, contracts or agreements with Indian Tribes under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, contracts or subcontracts whose value is equal to or less than the simplified acquisition threshold, employees who perform work outside the United States, and subcontracts solely for the provision of products.

The order states its purpose is “to promote economy and efficiency in procurement by contracting with sources that provide adequate COVID-19 safeguards for their workforce.”

The order is effective immediately and applies to new contracts exercised, on or after October 15, 2021, with some exceptions.

On September 9, the Office of the Registrar of Lobbyists for British Columbia (ORL) will implement a change to its online registry that will allow for streamlining the process for declaring certain coalition activities.

The change involves answering additional questions regarding whether a lobbying activity being reported was a jointly signed or endorsed letter sent on behalf of one or more of the organizations listed in the associated registration return as members of a coalition to which the organization or client belongs. Rather than being reported by each of the coalition member of a joint letter, the letter will only need to be declared once as a coalition activity and only reported once by the organization or consultant lobbyist that communicated the joint letter to senior public office holders.

According to the ORL, a change in the online lobbying activity report forms will be visible to organizations that have declared in their registration returns that the organization is a member of a coalition. The change will also be visible to consultant lobbyists when they prepare lobbying activity reports for clients, if they have declared in the associated registration return that the client belongs to a coalition.

If an organization has not declared membership in a coalition, this change does not affect them. This change also does not affect consultant lobbyists whose clients are not members of coalitions.

The provincial general election for Nova Scotia will be held on Tuesday, August 17.

This 41st provincial general election will be held to elect a member in each of the 55 electoral districts to serve in the House of Assembly.

On July 17, the Chief Electoral Officer Richard Temporale received an order from the Governor in Council for the election. Upon this notice, Temporale issued writs of election for all 55 electoral districts.

The province’s last general election was held on May 30, 2017.

On July 20, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced indictments against three individuals alleged to have illegally lobbied for a foreign government, including billionaire Thomas Joseph Barrack, one-time Chairman of the 2016 Presidential Inaugural Committee and informal advisor for Donald J. Trump.

Prosecutors assert Barrack and two associates allegedly used “unlawful efforts to advance the interests of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the United States at the direction of senior UAE officials by influencing the foreign policy positions of the campaign of a candidate in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and, subsequently, the foreign policy positions of the U.S. government in the incoming administration, as well as seeking to influence public opinion in favor of UAE interests,” according to the DOJ’s press release.

When acting, in the United States, as agents operating under the control of foreign governments or foreign officials, other than diplomats, individuals are required to notify the U.S. Attorney General’s office of such activities under 18 U.S.C. §951(a), a law related to the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

Among the other accusations in the seven-count indictment, prosecutors allege that when the lobbying behavior was discovered and Barrack was interviewed about it, he made numerous false statements to the FBI special agents.

Lobbyists in Pennsylvania will soon be required to disclose any equity held in a client they represent. House Bill 336, a state budget and operations bill that became law on July 9 without the signature of Gov. Tom Wolf, includes a provision requiring annual equity disclosures from lobbyists and lobbying firms. The disclosures must list each equity a lobbying firm or lobbyist holds in an entity for which they are lobbying.

The first equity report will be due with the Department of State on October 7, which is 30 days after this provision of law takes effect. Subsequent equity reports will be due by July 30 starting in 2022.

The Department of State will be permitted to request additional information from lobbyists, if needed.

On July 6, legislation was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives that would require corporations to disclose to their shareholders the amounts disbursed for certain political activity.

H.R. 4359, introduced by Rep. Matt Cartwright, was referred to the Ways and Means and House Administration committees.

Rep. Marcy Kaptur and Rep. Adam Schiff are cosponsors of the bill.

On June 16, the Legislative Assembly of Alberta adjourned for the summer.

Lawmakers passed Bill 68, the Election Statutes Amendment Act, 2021, which unambiguously states that a member of the Legislative Assembly, including a member of the Executive Council in his or her capacity as a member of the Legislative Assembly, is not prohibited from publicly expressing his or her views on the subject-matter of a referendum. Bill 202, the Conflicts of Interest (Protecting the Rule of Law) Amendment Act, 2020, has stalled in the Assembly. The bill would impose more stringent ethics law upon members of the Assembly.

The Assembly is tentatively scheduled to reconvene on October 25.

The Ethics Committee of the Canadian House of Commons issued a report this month making recommendations for the House and the executive branch, including recommending greater recording-keeping when meeting with lobbyists. Specifically, the committee urges the Government of Canada to implement a mandatory rule requiring, except in exceptional circumstances, that senior public office holders be accompanied by at least one member of staff, for note taking purposes, during any meeting with lobbyists.

On June 10, the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics issued a 116-page report titled “Questions of Conflict of Interest and Lobbying in Relation to Pandemic Spending,” which calls for greater transparency and accountability in procurement processes with specific recommendations.

Some of the recommendations include that the Government of Canada remove the significant part of duties threshold from the Lobbying Act for in-house lobbyists and clarify lobbying rules applicable to founders of organizations that may lobby government; introduce legislative changes to the Lobbying Act to give the Commissioner of Lobbying greater powers to investigate, issue fines and impose lobbying bans to those who disregard the Act; and ensure better compliance with the post-employment obligations of a public office holder, whether through greater sanctions or other means.

The report, a study originally started in 2020 to address general safeguards in place to prevent conflicts of interest in federal government expenditure policies, updated its focus to include pandemic spending and ways to counter the ethical concerns arising from the WE Charity scandal, in which former Finance Minister Bill Morneau was found to have violated the Conflict of Interest Act. It details events surrounding the awarding of the contribution agreement for the administration of the Canada Student Service Grant; addresses issues concerning communications by a former reporting public office holder with government officials; and the federal government’s award of a ventilator contract during the pandemic.

The committee made a total of 23 recommendations, including that the Government of Canada establish oversight and accountability mechanisms that are specifically designed to ensure rapid and transparent allocation of federal funds during emergency situations.

On June 8, an Ontario, Canada Superior Court judge struck down a section of the province’s Election Finances Act that mandated a 12-month pre-election period restricting third party advertising.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Edward M. Morgan’s decision, Working Families Ontario v. Ontario, explicitly holds that the period will no longer be in effect. The restricted pre-election spending period of 12 months had a $600,000 limit on third-party political advertisement expenditures.

Judge Morgan found the law was unconstitutional and a violation of the “freedom of expression” for the parties suing the province.

As noted by the judge in his decision, the next election in Ontario is scheduled to take place on June 2, 2022, already within the 12-month restricted period for political advertisements under the section being stricken. Judge Morgan wrote, “It would be unfair to the Applicants (and to other potential third-party political advertisers) for statutory provisions that have been declared unconstitutional to remain in operation during this time.” He found the burden of addressing the issue should remain on the legislature to craft an appropriate and constitutional provision.

On June 3, the Legislative Assembly of Ontario adjourned for the summer.

Bill 162, Public Accountability and Lobbyist Transparency Act, 2020, has remained in committees since March of 2020.

Changes the legislation could bring include requiring any member of the Executive Council who has been lobbied by, or otherwise met with, a consultant or in-house lobbyist to file a report about the lobbying or meeting with the registrar not later than 30 days after the lobbying or meeting took place.

This Act would come into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.

The Assembly is scheduled to reconvene on September 13.

On June 1, the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba adjourned for the summer.

Bill 222, The Lobbyists Registration Amendment Act, was introduced in March, but has not yet moved beyond the first reading.

The bill would remove the exemption for union representatives in The Lobbyists Registration Act.

If passed, the Act would come into force 90 days after the day it receives royal assent.

The Assembly is scheduled to reconvene on October 6.