Here’s a rundown of the news we covered this week:

Enterprise Canada closed its office in St. Catharines, Ont., and opened a new office in Hamilton, Ont. The new location was chosen, in part, to take advantage of the city’s growing talent in creative industries, according to Jason Lietaer, Enterprise’s president. The firm is interested in staff with a background in fields such as multimedia design and digital campaigns since it launched an in-house digital and creative services agency in October, known as “Hub at Enterprise.”

Enterprise now has locations in Toronto, Hamilton and Edmonton, as well as an office in Ottawa that it jointly operates with Navigator, a public relations firm.

Melissa Lantsman, a former veteran of the election campaign team for Ontario Premier Doug Ford, has joined Enterprise as vice-president of national public affairs. Lantsman previously served as campaign director in Ford’s war room in 2018. Following Ford’s election, Lantsman took a position with Hill+Knowlton Strategies as a vice-president of public affairs. Lantsman is also an active volunteer, and currently serves as vice-president of the Ontario PC party executive.

The federal ethics office finished 2019 with 41 case files closed, according to reports released by the office. The most recent quarterly statistics report covers the period between Oct. 1 and  Dec. 31. One of the most high-profile cases closed in 2019 was an investigation into Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The ethics office released a report in August that declared Trudeau had violated ethics rules by improperly pressuring former Justice minister, and now Independent MP Jody Wilson-Raybould to intervene in a criminal prosecution involving SNC-Lavalin.

Health was the most common subject matter listed in communication reports posted between Jan. 27 and Feb. 2. That subject appeared in 25 communication reports posted in that time frame, contributing to a trend of rising health-related conversations on the Hill. The number of communication reports filed related to health totalled 30 in October, which more than doubled in November to 71, and then reached 109 reports in December. However, the December total still fell short of the 209 communication reports filed in June on the subject of health.

In new registrations, eight new registry filings were posted to the federal lobbyists’ registry this week, with Global Public Affairs (GPA) hired for three of those files.

The Canada Cleantech Alliance started its first file on Jan. 27 with GPA consultant Fernando Melo. The alliance is composed of provincial organizations that promote technology with a reduced carbon footprint. It would like to discuss the possibility of the federal budget allowing the use of flow-through shares by clean tech companies, the registry shows.

Melo will communicate with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Environment, Finance, Innovation, the Privy Council Office (PCO), and MPs and senators.

Also new on the registry is the CCG 2026 Feasibility Corporation, which would like to talk to the federal government about the feasibility of Alberta hosting the 2026 Commonwealth Games. CCG started its first file on Feb. 2 with GPA consultant Hunter Doubt.

He will communicate with the PMO, Canadian Heritage, the PCO, the Intergovernmental Affairs Secretariat, and MPs.

The last new registry file listing GPA was posted by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. The ballet company started its file on Feb. 3 with GPA consultant Sean Casey, and then added Casey’s colleague, consultant Andrea Beltran, on Feb. 4.

The Royal Winnipeg Ballet is interested in discussing a possible increase in the budget of the federal government’s Canadian Arts Training Fund (CATF), the registry shows.

The program has an annual budget of $24.1 million. Canadian Heritage has estimated that annual public demand for CAFT funding often exceeds its budget by an average of 18 per cent.
 

New registry files posted between 2020-02-03 and 2020-02-07

Based on a search of the federal lobbyists' registry on Feb. 7 at 9:15 a.m.
 

New registrations posted between 2020-02-03 and 2020-02-07

Reactivations posted between 2020-02-03 and 2020-02-07