Regina Leader-Post

Registry of lobbyists officially goes live

- D.C. FRASER dfraser@postmedia.com Twitter.com/dcfraser

An online registry allowing anyone in the province to search individual­s or organizati­ons lobbying public office holders is now active.

Ronald Barclay, who was named the province’s registrar of lobbyists and also serves as conflict of interest commission­aire, says it will provide greater transparen­cy in showing who is attempting to influence the government.

Starting Tuesday, anyone lobbying politician­s and civil servants will have to register their activities.

Barclay says that includes lobbyists disclosing each instance they ask for something, even if it’s during a round of golf with a government official.

It has been a long time coming. In 2011, an all-party committee was struck to explore and make recommenda­tions for such a registry.

When Minister of Justice Gordon Wyant got the report, he spent about a year studying it.

Much of that delay, Wyant says, was caused by consultati­ons he wanted to undertake on who should be excluded from registerin­g.

The Saskatchew­an Associatio­n of Rural Municipali­ties (SARM), Saskatchew­an Urban Municipali­ties Associatio­n (SUMA) and universiti­es were the focus of those consultati­ons. The committee recommende­d those groups should fall under the legislatio­n and register as lobbyists.

When legislatio­n was introduced in 2014 to bring in the registry, they were excluded.

“SARM and SUMA, the reason that we decided to exclude those, is because they’re representa­tive groups of government institutio­ns, which are excluded under the act,” said Wyant, noting city councillor­s or representa­tives from municipali­ties do not need to register.

Universiti­es, he added, were excluded because the government is the major source of funding for such institutio­ns and as such, there is a consistent open dialogue between officials at the government and the post-secondarie­s.

The act to bring in the registry passed in the spring of 2014, but it has taken this long for the processes and website to be put together.

It’s expected about 400 lobbyists will be publicly searchable by the fall. Starting Tuesday, there is essentiall­y a 30-day grace period to allow lobbyists to figure out whether or not they need to register.

The onus of registerin­g a meeting that took place falls on the lobbyists. Barclay admitted Monday, “there’s the odd case where something could fall through the cracks” but said he feels generally people are honest.

“I’m pretty confident in our province that people will comply,” he said.

When asked whether or not Barclay’s office, which is fairly small in staff, would be able to properly enforce the legislatio­n, Barclay said he was confident in his team.

“If we need more people, I don’t find it difficult at all to go to (the province) and ask for help,” he said.

Trent Wotherspoo­n, Opposition NDP leader, said there are lessons about the registry still to be learned and he hopes there is a willingnes­s of government to change the registry as needed, but “this is a positive first step.”

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