With only a handful of participants, Hamilton’s lobbyist registry faces a test of its relevance this month that may decide whether the eight-year process to establish it was worthwhile. The immediate issue is a rule-breaking urban service extension deep into the rural area on behalf of a Swiss multinational whose council sponsor says is exempt from the city’s lobbying rules.
If Lloyd Ferguson’s colleagues agree with his argument that ARYZTA Inc – the world’s largest bakery – qualifies as his constituent and is therefore exempt from registering as a lobbyist, it may explain why only a handful of business representatives have bothered to enroll in the first six months of the registry’s existence. Presumably the same argument would apply to any other business with outlets or operations in the city, including some like Tim Horton’s with a presence in every ward.
So far only 34 clients are in the registry, and thirteen of those are represented by a single consultant – former mayor Larry DiIanni. That leaves just 21 individuals registered as lobbyists and only 15 of those are representing businesses, with others identified as volunteers or acting for local citizen organizations or just themselves.
That’s not much more than the eight who participated in the former volunteer registry that ran for a decade before being replaced six months ago with the mandatory one. In contrast, the compulsory registry established in 2012 by the City of Ottawa listed 500 lobbyists in its first four months of operation.
Toronto’s system reports over 2500 clients in a much more comprehensive system that requires each individual lobbying activity – phone call, email, visit, etc – to be listed, and all public office holders to help enforce the rules. Lobbying of all city staff and elected officials is covered in Toronto, while in Hamilton the rules apply to less than ten senior staff along with politicians and their staff.
Several lobbyists are listed as talking to city manager Chris Murray and/or Jason Thorne who heads up the city’s economic development and planning department. But there are none registered to lobby the general manager of the public works department who oversees nearly 2400 employees responsible for the vast majority of city purchasing on roads, sewers, water, transit, waste management and waterfront development.
DiIanni is listed as a consultant for companies ranging from Delta Bingo and Hamilton Cab to the Hamilton City Centre. He’s also representing the union LIUNA (Labourers International Union of North America). DiIanni was mayor from 2003-2006 and has been host of the Cable 14 weekly Hamilton Talks show since 2005.
Other ex-politicians on the registry include former federal cabinet ministers Stan Keyes – acting for the Payday Loan Association of Canada – and Tony Valeri representing Arcelor Mittal. Former councillor and mayoralty candidate Brad Clark joined the list in January on behalf of Habitat for Humanity.
The Chamber of Commerce has two lobbyists as does Enbridge pipeline company while three others are representing taxi interests including Uber, the Taxi Academy and Hamilton Cab. There are no subdivision developers on the list, not even the Hamilton Halton Home Builders Association which met secretly with senior staff and politicians for more than a decade before those gatherings were moved into the public.
The registry includes a description of the lobbyist’s purpose but some of these are quite vague such as the one filed by the Realtors Association representative as “general lobbying on behalf of membership, individual REALTOR® members and organization”.
On February 2, the planning committee will consider a motion by Councillor Ferguson to extend city sewer services four kilometres into the rural area to an ARYZTA bakery. A city brochure warns rural landowners this is not permitted – something that’s emphasized in the city’s official plan.
“The Province requires municipalities to prohibit the extension or expansion of lake-based municipal services to all rural areas, except in response to public health emergencies,” states the current official plan. “No extensions of the municipal lake-based water and wastewater systems shall be permitted into rural area lands detailed in this Plan unless the Medical Officer of Health declares an urgent public health emergency and there are no viable alternatives to rectify the emergency except by the provision of municipal water and/or wastewater systems to the affected population.”