Here’s the news we covered this week:

Glenn Brimacombe, the director of policy and public affairs at Canadian Alliance of Mental Illness and Mental Health discussed the group’s annual advocacy days and awards ceremony held near Parliament Hill with The Lobby Monitor. He talked about the group’s main advocacy goals, and the methods they are using to advance those goals. “Mental health is sort of overlooked because other [physical] illnesses are focused on … so its very important to do these sort of events to bring attention to these issues,” said Brimacombe.

The Lobby Monitor spoke with former Earnscliffe Strategies consultant Brittney Kerr about Framepoint Public Affairs, a new independent consultancy that she and her three partners (who all have experience at the big name lobbying firms) launched on Sept. 26. “Each of us knew that we wanted to go out on our own, and we felt that the consulting model we wanted to pursue for our clients we would best be able to do that with the freedom to work on our own,” she said in an Oct. 3 phone interview with The Lobby Monitor. Kerr and her partners Emma Macklem (also a former Earnscliffe consultant), Jeff Ferrier (most recently of Hill+Knowlton) and Mark Reder (most recently at FleishmanHillard) launched Framepoint Public Affairs in Victoria, B.C., which will advocate for clients on a municipal, provincial and federal level.

Bruce MacDonald, president and CEO at Imagine Canada, told The Lobby Monitor how he led a coalition of non-profits to ask the federal government to shift its focus on a key issue related to tax policy. “The idea is to bring awareness and attention to the alternative minimum tax issue because that's the most immediate concern,” he said.

In weekly communications reports, the Canadian Urban Transit Association submitted the highest number of communication reports—18—during the week of Sept. 25 as a result of discussions related to the public transit sector. The organization is looking to discuss various issues including dedicated funding for urban public transit, municipal infrastructure investment, and the implementation of a national transit strategy, according to its registry file.

In this week’s registrations, Carbon Removal Canada, an independent policy non-profit that will advocate for implementation of carbon removal technology, has joined the federal lobbyists’ registry for the first time. Ed Whittingham of Whit & Ham will represent the organization.

Another group focusing on carbon capture and storage technologies, Deep Sky Corporation, has also joined the registry for the first time. The company is represented by Patricia Lemoine and Alexandre Meterissian of Teneo Lemoine and Meterissian will advocate for the federal government to create funding and tax credit programs for carbon capture and storage projects, according to their files.

World Animal Protection has hired another consultant to represent it on the registry: Mandeep Sharma of KPW Comms. The consultant will seek discussions with government officials to “illustrate that vegan food can be enjoyable and delicious and has a positive impact on the economy, health and environment,” according to her registry file. The group focuses on advocacy efforts, education and social change in order to protect animals worldwide.

New Registry

Based on a search of the federal lobbyists' registry on Oct. 6 at 8:45 a.m. ET.

New Registrations

Reactivation