Here’s the news we covered this week:

In this week’s On Queen Street, Katherine Koostachin discussed her new role at Sussex Strategy, where she will be responsible for the creation of an Indigenous practice. “I can work directly with proponents, whether they are companies or Indigenous communities, in the energy sector and critical minerals, facilitating that process and working on the ground [with these groups],” said Koostachin, vice-president of Indigenous relations and reconciliation.

The Lobby Monitor spoke with Brett Thalmann about his new firm Nexus Strategic Consultants, and the firm’s focus on tech start-up clients and their need for government relation expertise. “We have a number of [clients which are] startups at various stages of financing that are scaling up,” said Thalmann. “As they’re working on products and growing, they're realizing they have needs around government relations, whether that's procurement, dealing with complex regulations, or just wanting to get their public profile increased so they're better positioned for that growth and for future [government] funding rounds.”

The National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) filed the highest number of communication reports in January. NCCM, represented by its CEO Stephen Brown, submitted 73 reports for communications held between Jan. 10 and Jan. 29. A significant number of communications were held on Jan. 29, which was the seventh annual national day of remembrance for the 2017 shooting in a Quebec City mosque that claimed the lives of six Muslims. A total of 1,911 communication reports were submitted to the registry in January.

The NCCM was also the most active organization in weekly communications reports as it submitted a total of 65 reports during the week of Feb. 5. Brown’s registry file lists a number of discussion topics focusing on policies related to the safety of Muslim-Canadians, religious freedom, and national security.

In this week’s registrations, the Prosperity Project joined the federal lobbyists’ registry for the first time to discuss its mandate with government officials. The organization is represented by Lisa Kirbie of Blackbird Strategies, Ltd. The consultant’s file states that she wants to discuss the project’s efforts to “link women and prosperity” by highlighting the economic importance of gender equality during COVID-19 pre-recovery, recovery, and post-recovery efforts.

Another charity joining the registry for the first time is the Kidney Foundation, which seeks to increase awareness of chronic kidney disease. The organization is represented by Meghna Thakur of Santis Health. Thakur will engage government officials to bring attention towards issues related to chronic kidney disease and to discuss a national chronic kidney disease framework, according to her file.

In new registrations, Kanin Energy Inc. has hired Dan Lovell of Sussex Strategy Group to engage government officials about making “waste heat to power” technology applicable for clean technology investment tax credits. “Waste to heat” technology captures excess thermal energy generated by industrial facilities, such as exhaust gas, and converts it into electricity. Lovell is joining his Sussex colleagues Roberto Chávez and Jason Evans in representing the company on the federal registry.

New Registry

Based on a search of the federal lobbyists' registry on Feb. 16 at 8:40 a.m. E.T.

New Registration

Reactivations