Here’s a look back at the news we covered this week:

Data from September communication reports shows that the new fall sitting brought with it a spurt in lobbying activity. There were 1,951 reports posted to the federal lobbyists’ registry for communications that took place last month. Of those, 1,152 (59 per cent) happened on or after Sept. 20, when both the House of Commons and Senate resumed sitting. The most active organization last month was the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), which posted 54 communication reports. All but two communications took place on Sept. 26, when the council held a foreign policy-based lobby day.

The NCCM also led in communication reports posted to the federal lobbyists’ registry last week. The organization posted 54 of the 1,574 communications submitted between Oct. 10 and Oct. 16. Represented on the registry by CEO Stephen Brown, the council communicated with Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan; Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino; International Development Minister Harjit Sajjan; and Families Minister Karina Gould during its Sept. 26 lobby day. 

Speaking of lobby days, the Cannabis Council of Canada (C3) brought a new strategy and more urgent requests to its second Hill day in five months, as the industry seeks financial relief from the federal government. The October lobby day connected cannabis business owners and industry leaders from across the country with their local MPs to convey what C3 CEO George Smitherman described as the “dire” financial circumstances facing businesses. 

Former federal and provincial staffer Simrath Grewal joined Earnscliffe Strategies earlier this month as a senior consultant in the Vancouver, B.C. office. Grewal told The Lobby Monitor he joined Earnscliffe for its focus on both government relations outreach and  advocacy initiatives, with the latter referring to the company’s combined communications and opinion research specialties. Grewal has a long association with the British Columbia Liberal Party, including time spent as a special projects co-ordinator for the party from November 2013 to August 2014, then as a communications officer and social media lead for the party’s caucus from June 2015 to June 2016 when the party was in power. He was also the manager of communications and public affairs for Liberal MP Sukh Dhaliwal between May 2017 and October 2019.

In new registrations, the Canadian Administrator of Video Relay Service, Inc. (CAV) has hired Bluesky Strategy Group consultant Janice Nicholson, who registered on Oct. 14, to represent it in discussions with 10 government institutions, including Health, Innovation, Infrastructure, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), Canada Post Corporation, and Service Canada. CAV administers Canada VRS, which in turn operates a national network of video relay services (VRS). VRS is a telecommunications service that enables people with hearing or speech difficulties to communicate with voice telephone users. According to its registry file, CAV joined the registry to encourage government organizations to create dedicated service groups for VRS users in their call centres. The file states that CAV is particularly focused on encouraging CRA, Health Canada, and Service Canada to adopt the service groups in order to “reduce confusion and rejections.”

Also interested in discussing telecom services is Rocket Doctor, a Toronto-based virtual health care platform. Rocket Doctor has hired Edelman consultants Victoria Jordan and Ashley Brambles to represent it in discussions with Health and MPs. Jordan registered on Oct. 10, while Brambles registered on Oct. 19. Rocket Doctor provides virtual health care consultations between doctors and patients in Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta. According to its registry file, the company is interested in discussing virtual care access in Canada, as well as the specific virtual care technology used by Rocket Doctor.

The Canadian Nuclear Association (CNA) has boosted its presence on the Hill with the addition of Sandstone Group consultants Naresh Raghubeer, Douglas Thomas, Kevin Bosch, and Matthew Trapp. The Sandstone consultants join CNA president and CEO John Gorman, who has been on the file since May 7, 2019; Earnscliffe Strategies consultant Rick Anderson, who has represented the association since Nov. 17, 2020; and Utilia Amaral, founder of MarketSteps Consulting, who registered on Feb. 1, 2020. According to its registry file, the CNA is seeking financial, regulatory and policy support to build small modular reactors. It also wants to discuss international nuclear co-operation and emissions trading.

New registry files

Based on a search of the federal lobbyists' registry on Oct. 21 at 9:09 a.m. ET

New registrations

Reactivations