Ms Sherry Perreault:

There are a few things in there to pick apart. First, where a person falls within the scope of the legislation and makes a communication to a designated public official about a relevant matter, that is considered lobbying for the purposes of the Act. The Deputy is correct that the person has to fall within the scope of the legislation and, the way the Act is structured, it is largely targeted at business or business interests as well as representative and advocacy bodies. A person with more than ten employees, a business, a representative body or an advocacy group, as long as it has at least one employee, falls within scope, as would any third party paid to lobby on their behalf. Even if a consultant is lobbying, their client has to fall within the scope of the legislation as well for that to be a registrable lobbying communication. If I lobby as an individual and do not fit within the scope of the legislation, that lobbying also would not fit within scope if a third party was lobbying on my behalf. The primary client has to be within the scope of the legislation as well and it has to be about a relevant matter and to a designated public official.

Whether that needs to be expanded is a matter for debate. I am of the view that the Act's exemptions provide for things like private affairs being outside of scope and one would have to be cautious in terms of how the Act was reshaped to capture any matter that dealt with, for example, public funding and not to capture an individual's private affairs. For example, under the current legislation, if a constituent contacts their local TD and seeks assistance with a passport, their spouse's immigration status or a medical card for a family member, such communications are outside the scope of the legislation and not captured. If they were to communicate about something like a passport, it still involves public funds but it is not in the same way that seeking a contract with the Government would be. If there was a desire to expand that, it would have to be done carefully so it does not capture regular constituent communications.