Lobbyists targeting Independent senators
INDEPENDENT SENATORS ARE THE HOT NEW TARGET FOR SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS
As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s vision for a less-partisan Senate takes shape, independent senators are now the most likely to be lobbied by special interest groups.
Lobbyists communicated with members of the upper chamber twice as often in 2017 as in 2016, and a full six times as often as in 2015, apparently a reflection of senators’ increasing influence.
“I think that senators are being lobbied more because we’re being more active. We’re being very proactive,” Liberal Sen. Terry Mercer, the most-lobbied senator in 2017, told the National Post.
“Although some of them might find it a little annoying that suddenly they’re getting a lot more requests, I think if they sat back and thought about it they’ll realize that it’s part of the process,” he said. “We need to understand what Canadians feel about the legislation that’s coming before us, and understand what the effects of legislation might be. So it’s important we do it.”
An analysis of records from the office of the commissioner of lobbying shows that in 2017, lobbyists filed a total of 1,250 monthly communication reports that detailed meetings with public office holders at the Senate. That’s still a far cry from the more than 8,000 registered with the House of Commons, although there are currently only 94 senators (with 11 of 105 seats vacant) versus 338 MPs.
But it’s a huge leap from how often senators were lobbied even a couple of years ago. There were twice as many such meetings in 2017 as in 2016, when 687 communications were registered. In election year 2015, there’d only been 217, with an average of about 450 annually in the four previous years. Last year when the Post reported on an initial uptick under Trudeau’s Liberal government, lobbyists declared this was a “new normal,” a reflection of the reality that independent senators are changing how decisions get made. It appears that trend has only continued.
For the first time in Canadian history — as a result of a new appointments process instituted by Trudeau, which hires senators with an application process and encourages non-partisanship — there are more independent senators than Conservatives or Liberals.
The biggest caucus is the nascent Independent Senators Group, which, though most of its members were appointed by a Liberal prime minister, explicitly forbids its leadership from whipping votes or even trying to influence its members.
An institutional shift is underway with far-reaching consequences to how Canada’s parliamentary democracy operates. Trudeau has no Senate caucus to whip: he has a trifecta of government representatives but they hold few mechanisms at their disposal to compel votes from other senators. About a fifth of government bills are now passing with changes added by senators, a figure lauded by the ISG. Last year a Liberal budget bill was almost split into two. Disagreement between the houses has led to major concessions by the government, such as with a bill addressing sex-based inequities in Indian Act registration.
It is no longer a guarantee that the upper chamber will rubber-stamp whatever our elected officials approve.
Lobbyists seem to have taken notice of the shifting power dynamic. In 2017, members of the ISG were lobbied 578 times. Conservatives, who still sit in a caucus with Conservative MPs, were lobbied 458 times. Senate Liberals — divorced from Trudeau’s caucus of MPs but still card-carrying partisans — were communicated with 250 times, while the trio of government representatives are listed in 116 meetings.
Of the 1,250 communications, 234 were on health matters: last year, the Senate passed a bill requiring plain packaging for tobacco, still making its way through the House of Commons, and the Liberal marijuana legalization bill came to senators last fall. The next-biggest topic was taxation and finance, at 226. Last year the government complained senators had overstepped by trying to amend its budget bill. The third-biggest topic was transportation, with 219 meetings registered.
What Mercer called an “omnibus” transportation bill, C-49, is currently being studied in Senate committee. Lobbyists have been active on the file.
The deputy leader of the Senate Liberals said being the longest-serving member of the transport and agriculture committees adds to a list of reasons why lobbyists might approach him. Besides, he has always been open to meeting with interest groups, he said, “because I don’t have all the answers and if I’m dealing with legislation I like to hear from people other than the proposers of legislation.