A Significant Part of Duties ("The 20% Rule")

Purpose of this Bulletin

This interpretation bulletin is issued by the Registrar of Lobbyists under the authority of subsection 10.(1) of the Lobbyists Registration Act (hereafter "the Act"). The purpose of this bulletin is to help you better understand the phrase "a significant part of the duties" as used in section 7 of the Act and as it applies to employees of corporations or organizations.

In-house lobbyists (corporations and organizations)

Subsection 7.(1) of the Act for in-house lobbyists (corporations and organizations) requires that the officer responsible for filing returns ¹ (hereafter referred to as "the officer") must register on behalf of the corporation or organization. The officer must file a return when one or more employees communicate with federal public office holders on behalf of the employer.

For the purpose of this interpretation bulletin, the threshold after which lobbying represents a significant portion of one's duties has been established at 20% of overall duties.

Enterprises

Should the employer be a corporation, the officer must file on behalf of any subsidiary of the employer or any corporation of which the employer is a subsidiary and who benefit from the lobbying activities. The return must be filed in respect of: the development, making or amending of laws and regulations, policies or programs, or the award of federal grants, contributions, tax credits or other financial benefits, and where the lobbying activities would constitute a significant part of the duties of one employee or, if such lobbying activities were performed by many employees, they would constitute a significant part of the duties of one equivalent employee.

In the case of corporations, the officer must register on behalf of the corporation and list the names of each senior officer (i.e. Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer, President of the corporation, and any other officer who reports directly to one of the above) who lobbies as part of his or her duties, as well as the names of other employees whose duties require them to dedicate a significant part of their time to lobbying. Although these employees may communicate infrequently with elected or appointed federal public office holders, all duties related to such communication activities must be taken into consideration in determining whether they represent a significant part of the work of these employees.

Organizations

With respect to organizations, the officer must register on behalf of the organization and list the names of paid employees who perform lobbying activities. Many organizations have paid employees who work on government relations, public affairs or specific policy areas or issues. Although these employees may communicate infrequently with elected or appointed federal public office holders, any time dedicated to these activities must be taken into consideration to determine whether the 20% threshold has been reached or exceeded.

20% Calculation

With regard to both corporations and organizations, the officer responsible for filing the return must determine whether on not lobbying constitutes a significant part of the duties of those employees who communicate with public office holders and who are subject to the 20% rule. This can be done using various approaches. One way is to estimate the time spent preparing for communicating (researching, drafting, planning, compiling, travelling, etc) and actually communicating with public office holders. For instance, a one-hour meeting may require nine hours of preparation. In this case, the time related to lobbying with a public office holder would be the total, 10 hours. In situations where the time related to lobbying is difficult to estimate, the officer responsible for filing will have to estimate the relative importance of lobbying within the various duties for which the employee is responsible and determine the proportion related to lobbying activities. Both methods may be used in conjunction if the situation is not clear. In any case, the officer responsible will be accountable for the decision as to whether or not a disclosure is necessary.

In order to provide a time basis for estimating the relative importance of lobbying activities, a six-month estimation period should be used. The suggested time period is consistent with the registration update cycle. If, over that period, the total amount of time spent lobbying by all paid employees would equal 20% or more of the employment time of one employee, this would be considered a significant part of duties and the corporation or organization must register. In addition, if the 20% threshold is reached during any given month during the six-month period, then registration would become required.

Exceptions / Exclusions

The registration requirements do not apply to some activities and these are set out in the Act. Examples would be: communications restricted to a straightforward request for publicly available information; the preparation and presentation of briefings to parliamentary committees; or, employees making submissions to federal public office holders on the employer's behalf with respect to the enforcement, interpretation or application by that official of any existing federal statute or regulation. This exemption would also include routine dealings with government inspectors and other regulatory authorities.

¹ The officer responsible for filing returns means the most senior paid officer of a corporation or organization.

For further information, please contact:

Office of the Registrar of Lobbyists
255 Albert Street
10^th Floor
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0R5

Tel.: 613-957-2760
Fax: 613-957-3078

E-mail: QuestionsLobbying@orl-bdl.gc.ca

Michael Nelson
Registrar of Lobbyists
June 2005