Business interests looking to bend the ear of local elected officials may soon have to sign up and be clear about their intent.
Meeting as the committee of the whole Wednesday, city council unanimously told staff to investigate the prospect of creating a municipal lobbyist registry in order to establish “accountability and transparency” regarding efforts to influence elected officials and municipal staff.
That investigation is expected to conclude with a report and recommendations to council in the first quarter of next year.
Before that work can begin, the committee’s decision would need to be ratified by council – something that’s likely to be considered during its Sept. 26 meeting.
Committee members approved the motion without discussion.
The lobbyist registry concept comes in the wake of the provincial government’s decision earlier this summer to grant the mayor of Guelph so-called strong mayor powers. They allow the mayor to veto council-approved bylaws if they consider council’s decision to be contrary to provincial-level goals, create council committees and decide who leads them, hire senior city staff, reorganize municipal departments and more.
Lobbyist registries typically include information such as the name and address of the business, name of the lobbyist, details about the matter at issue, who is to be lobbied and length of each lobbying session.
“Staff previously undertook a review (of municipal lobbyist registries) in 2019, however given the extension of strong mayor powers, it is appropriate to revisit that work and bring forward any additional information for council’s consideration,” a staff report explains. “Staff are working to bring forward an updated report to review the opportunities, benefits and costs of a municipal lobbyist registry in the first quarter (Q1) 2024.”
That earlier review resulted in an information report for council-of-the-day, though no directions to staff or council decisions came as a result, staff confirmed.
At the time, the cost of establishing a registry was estimated at between $50,000 and $100,000, in addition to unknown operating expenses.
Within days of local strong mayor powers becoming official in July, current mayor Cam Guthrie delegated authority to reorganize city departments to the CAO, with council granted the ability to hire and/or fire the CAO, appoint chairs and vice-chairs to council committees, as well as to assign duties to those committees.
However, as city staff previously explained, a mayor can reclaim those abilities at any time and they’re automatically restored for any future mayor.
