Here’s the news we covered this week:

In our pre-budget story, The Lobby Monitor took a deep dive into what advocacy groups hope to see in Budget 2024 to help alleviate the housing crisis. Jacob Gorenkoff, founder and CEO of Homeward Public Affairs; Bea Bruske, president of Canadian Labour Congress; and Michael McDonald, director of government relations and policy at Colleges and Institutes Canada, shared their insights on the issue. “Ultimately, there is no silver bullet to solving the problem, so we do need to tackle it from multiple directions,” said Gorenkoff. “Housing is an expensive problem [and] it's not going to be solved with cheap solutions. If we really want to solve the issue, we've got to throw money at it, but we need to do it in a smart way where it's going to the places we need.”

The Lobby Monitor covered a week of advocacy led by the Grain Growers of Canada (GGC), which kicked off the week with the release of its “Road to 2050” policy recommendations. Kyle Larkin, executive director at GGC, and Gayle McLaughlin, senior manager of government and industry relations at the Canadian Canola Growers Association, spoke about those recommendations with Larkin saying that they are “really predicated on the idea that we want to continue reducing greenhouse gas emissions while growing food production to meet our growing population both domestically and internationally.”

For this week’s On Queen Street feature, Liam O’Brien discussed his past experience working for provincial and federal Conservative ministers and how it will allow him to assist clients in his new senior consultant role at Earnscliffe Strategies. “I've had a lot of different experiences within both the federal and provincial governments, but the main thing I like to do is trying to bring some insight to not only the parliamentary process, but also the cabinet process and the policy development processes within each level of government,” said O’Brien about his decision to become a consultant. “There's some very subtle but important differences about how all that works and that's part of the value I bring.”

In this week’s communication reports, the Canadian Cattle Association (CCA) filed the highest number of communication reports for the week of April 1, for a range of communications that took place between February 2023 and February 2024. CCA is represented by its president Nathan Phinney, who submitted 32 out of the total 219 communications that were filed on the federal lobbyists’ registry. Phinney’s registry file lists a number of discussion topics such as policy and government programs related to cattle farms and regulations for the export and import of beef products.

In this week’s registrations, Electro Carbon is joining the federal lobbyists’ registry for the first time as it seeks out federal financial support for its clean carbon technology. The company is represented by Érika Dupuis of Sandstone Group. Electro Carbon’s technology captures carbon dioxide emissions and converts them into a chemical for other applications.

Also joining the registry for the first time is the Bissell Centre, represented by Ivan Ross Vrána of Diplomat Consulting Inc. Vrána will engage government officials on potential federal funding opportunities for the organization, according to his registry file. The Bissell Centre is an Edmonton-based non-profit organization working towards the elimination of poverty and homelessness in its community.

In new registrations, the Tea and Herbal Association of Canada has hired Andrew Neuheimer of Chris Gray & Associates to represent it on the federal lobbyists’ registry. Discussions will focus on the import and export of organic product regulations, health claims for tea, and the organic content and labelling of tea, according to Neuheimer’s file. The association advocates on behalf of importers, packers, retailers and other members throughout the tea and herbal supply chain.

New Registry

Based on a search of the federal lobbyists' registry on April 5, at 9:05 a.m. E.T.

New Registration

Reactivation