Sudbury city councillor calls for creation of lobbyist registry

A motion has passed in Greater Sudbury for staff to draft a bylaw on the creation of a lobbyist registry.

Ward 5 councillor Robert Kirwan put forward the motion at a city council meeting on Wednesday. He says the idea of creating such a registry has been discussed for the past five years, but it's never been brought forward as a formal discussion.

"We're getting into a situation over the next couple of years where we're going to have to make some hard decisions on our future," he said.

"I'm noticing that the sophistication of people in the community, [who] are approaching councillors to advance their interests, is getting to the point where I think, for transparency purposes ... they should be registered."

Kirwan says the registry wouldn't stop groups or organizations from lobbying members of council, but it would make the practice more transparent for councillors and the public.

He says the lobbying of councillors by people and groups has been going on for years.

"The most recent case was the group that was promoting Project Now, the development of the Sudbury Arena," he said. "I guess they were starting to meet a number of councillors just to show them what their proposal was."

Kirwan says when that was happening, the city was in legal proceedings over the development of the Kingsway Entertainment District. 

He says he received a call from the public asking if he knew the group had been approaching members of council —  which he says he didn't at the time.

"At that point you're quite embarrassed as a city councillor when you don't know what other councillors are being proposed," he said.

"Had this group been required to register on the lobbyist registry — it wouldn't have been any problem and they still could have been proposing and meeting with councillors. But when that call came in to ask if I was aware of it, I could have said yes, they're meeting with all the councillors."

Kirwan says the public will be able to monitor the groups talking to councillors, and let them know if they're in support or not of the lobbyist group's idea being pitched.

He says he doesn't consider lobbying to be the same thing as someone calling their area councillor with an individual concern.

"But if you're going to call all 12 councillors, then that's getting into lobbying," he said.

"If you and six of your friends decide to call all 12 councillors with the same message, that's definitely organized lobbying." 

Councillors voted in favour of the motion on Wednesday. City staff will now draft a bylaw on the creation of the registry, which councillors will then vote on.