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

At the top of this week’s agenda was the 2022 federal budget, which pledged funding to improve housing affordability, the rollout of a dental care program, and the creation of a national strategy for critical mineral extraction and manufacturing. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland second budget, titled A plan to grow our economy and make life more affordable focused on affordability, economic growth, and innovation. Freeland presented the budget in the House of Commons on April 7.

The budget will signal to advocacy organizations that a “new normal” for government spending and priorities has arrived, according to some lobbyists. Sheamus Murphy, partner at Counsel Public Affairs, said that the proposed spending is targeted, and may have been intended to reassure “Blue Liberals” concerned about the confidence and supply agreement reached between the Liberals and the NDP. “It's the first time in a while that we haven't had a pandemic budget or a pre-election budget that is always going to be full of something for everyone,” he said. “This time, they chose a few key areas that they needed to pay attention to against the backdrop of a really strong economy.”

The head of the association representing the medical technology industry hopes the public’s more recent appreciation for the challenges of getting new tools into provincial and territorial health care systems could lead to more efforts from politicians. Nicole DeKort, president and CEO of Medtech Canada, said that Canadians have been inundated with news about the importance of personal protective equipment, testing supplies and ventilators during the pandemic. The organization would like to see its members’ products  used to help alleviate a major pressure facing health care systems and governments across the country: the wait lists for thousands of medical procedures. (This story was also published in Hill Times Research, a sister publication to The Lobby Monitor which exclusively covers federal health policy.)

Former Alberta cabinet minister Sandra Jansen has joined Proof Strategies as a vice-president of government relations. Working from Toronto, Jansen will use her past experience in politics and journalism to assist clients in a variety of sectors. She said building strong relationships grounded in trust will be key to her new role.  “[You need to] trust that the people that you're working with who are representing you, whether you're a company or an organization, have that background and that understanding of how to have those conversations with government,” she said.

Mortgage Professionals Canada (MPC) posted 53 of the 217 communication reports submitted to the registry last week. The professional association MPC communicated with Mike Kelloway, parliamentary secretary to Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray; Julie Dabrusin, parliamentary secretary to the natural resources minister and environment minister; and Adam van Koeverden, parliamentary secretary to the health minister and sport minister. The organization also communicated with Lionel Fritz Adimi, policy adviser to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau; and Henrik Brakel, acting policy director to Conservative interim leader Candice Bergen. Most of those communications took place between March 21 and March 25, as part of the organization’s virtual lobby days.

New registry files

Based on a search of the federal lobbyists' registry on April 8 at 9:09 a.m. ET.

New registrations

Reactivations

The Lobby Monitor did not publish our regular Friday feature of new registrations to make room for post-budget analysis, but fret not, that article will return next week – Thurs. April 14, to be exact. Why? Because Hill Times Publishing is closed the following day for Good Friday. Following the Easter break, our “Day at the Registry” feature will return to its Friday home. Happy weekend!