On June 21, Jean-François Routhier, the Commissioner of Lobbying with Lobbyisme Québec, officially deployed the first phase of Carrefour Lobby Quebec, the new online disclosure regime of lobbying activities for the province.

The current registry of lobbyists will be replaced by Carrefour Lobby Québec, which will be administered by Lobbyisme Québec. The official and complete launch of Carrefour Lobby Québec is anticipated to take place in the fall of 2022. At that time, the current lobbyists’ registry will close.

Beginning June 21, the most senior executives of companies and organizations carrying out lobbying activities and their authorized representatives, as well as consultant lobbyists, will begin to be invited to proceed with the creation of their individual account and their businesses or organizations on the new website. Lobbyisme Québec plans to help support registered lobbyists efficiently transition to the new website during the second and final phase of the platform’s deployment.

According to the Office of Lobbyisme’s press release, the Lobbyists Commissioner has recommended that the government, as provided for in Bill 13, adopt the decree setting the entry into force of the new platform on October 13, 2022.

In the works since the summer of 2019, the updated web platform aims to replace the “technological obsolescence” of the current site with a modern system, to improve the user experience, and to be in line with Quebec’s 2019-2023 digital transformation strategy.

A new online Lobbyists Registry for Quebec, whose original deadline for implementation was set by law as of December 19, 2021, has been postponed until 2022.

On December 9, the National Assembly of Québec passed legislation allowing the government more time to optimally deploy the platform by providing for implementation phases, according to Lobbyists Commissioner Jean-Francois Routhie. The commissioner believes the additional time will allow his office “to finalize the data migration of the current register, the tutorials, the online assistance, and the subscription and publication functions” in a brand-new web application in cloud computing.

Routhie had formally requested the postponement in October, citing several unexpected hurdles causing the delay, including disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the difficulty in such a context of reaching the rate of development of the IT teams, and a shortage of manpower. In the works since the summer of 2019, the updated web platform aims to replace the “technological obsolescence” of the current site with a modern system, to improve the user experience, and to be in line with Quebec’s 2019-2023 digital transformation strategy.

The updates to the registry are expected to be up and running in the spring of 2022.