Here’s the news we covered this week:

The Lobby Monitor spoke with housing and food groups about their concerns with Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s Bill C-56, Affordable Housing and Groceries Act. For example, the Canadian Home Builders’ Association (CHBA) is advocating that the act should include projects which were under construction prior to this past September. “CHBA has been advocating for such projects that had not reached substantial completion by Sept. 14th to be eligible for the waiving of GST, as well, to help those projects come to fruition,” said Natasha Rombough, the organization’s director of marketing and communications.

Brian St. Louis, who recently became a director at Temple Scott Associates, told The Lobby Monitor that after spending over three years working for multinational corporations he found Temple Scott’s smaller size appealing. “I had a great first conversation with Don [Moors, president and national practice lead at Temple Scott], about what he was looking to do, how [Temple Scott] looks at serving clients, and their focus on results,” he said. “We're not reporting to a multinational office or publicly traded, which creates a closer relationship between the leadership and your clients and the people that are serving your clients.”

Council of Canadians’ campaigner Nikolas Barry-Shaw discussed the group’s asks, advocacy efforts, and their Nov. 17 rally with The Lobby Monitor. The council brought oversized prescription pill bottles filled with over 10,000 petition signatures to the rally outside of Health Minister Mark Holland’s constituency office in Ajax, Ont., to push the federal government to stick to its promise of creating a comprehensive pharmacare program. “For each one of those signatures behind it, you have someone who attended a town hall, who spoke to a campaigner or local activist outside of a pharmacy, who talked to their neighbours, who were told about the campaign and signed in favour of a public universal system,” he said. “There was a lot of grassroots organizing that went into those 10,000 signatures that were collected over the course of the year [and] that was something we wanted to highlight.”

In weekly communications reports, the Ontario Lung Association’s two lobby days in October led it to submit the highest number of communication reports during the week of Nov. 20. In total, 204 reports were submitted to the federal registry, with the Lung Health Foundation contributing 30 reports.Twenty-five of those communications took place during the Oct. 17 and 18 lobby days. According to the Lung Health Foundation's registry file, it is seeking to engage government officials on various topics, including a call for additional funding from Health Canada for public education on vaping and cannabis products.

In this week’s registrations, Capstone Power Development joins the federal lobbyists’ registry for the first time as it seeks out federal government support for its energy storage projects in Nova Scotia. The company is represented by Patrick Bateman of PDBateman & Associates Inc. Capstone is a developer, owner, and operator of clean and renewable energy projects across North America.

Another energy company joining for the first time is Consolidated Lithium Metals Inc., represented by Jordan O’Brien and Jacqueline Morehouse of the Porter O'Brien Agency Inc. Consolidated Lithium Metals is looking for federal funding to conduct a feasibility study for a potential lithium mining project and to inform government officials on the potential lithium output that the project can produce. The project is located in the Vallée Lithium property located in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region in western Québec.

The Safehaven Project for Community Living has returned to the registry and is represented by Danielle Peters of Magnet Strategy Group. The consultant will discuss federal funding to support programming for individuals living with special needs in the community setting. Safehaven is a non-profit organization which provides care to individuals with medical complexities and developmental disabilities.

New Registry

Based on a search of the federal lobbyists' registry on Dec. 1 at 9:03 a.m. ET.

New Registration 

Reactivation