Lobbying Compliance Manager - Overview

Our Lobbying Compliance Manager (hereinafter “system”) is a secure web-based application that can help your organization comply with its reporting obligations under the Lobbying Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. 44, s. 7 and its related Regulations that came into force simultaneously on July 2, 2008.

The person in your organization known as the "officer responsible for filing” must file with the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada, no later than fifteen days after the end of a reporting period, any information that is reportable under the act.

Using the compliance manager, you can log both Reportable and Non-Reportable communications and activities. See the Features & Benefits page for more information.

Lobbying Compliance Manager Process

The use of the compliance manager involves a simple five step process:

1. Create your organization’s account and user accounts

This is a one time operation in which AIMS will setup your account. Once we have setup your account, we will provide you with the username and password for the account administrator user. This user will have all access permissions and will be able to see all the information in your account.

Using the administrator account you will then create a user account for each individual in your organization that engages in lobbying activities.

2. Importing current registration information

In this step you must enter the information that is present in your registration in the Registry of Lobbyists. You are required to enter the existing information so that the system can automatically detect new information which you will be required to report. See Automatic Detection of Reportable Information in the Features and Benefits.

3. Reporting Period

A reporting period is a calendar month. During a reporting period, the individuals in your organization who engage in lobbying activities will enter in the compliance manager the required information on their communications.

The individuals in your organization who engage in lobbying are required to enter the following information:

• Advocacy Initiatives: These are the details of what your organization is lobbying for. For example, trying to obtain an amendment to a bill that is before parliament.
• DPOH Communications: These are communications with individuals in the Federal Government known as Designated Public Office Holders. All the information about these communications is reportable.
• Non-DPOH Communications: These are communications with the Federal Government which did not include Designated Public Office Holders. These communications are not reportable per se, however the Subject Matter, Advocacy Initiative, and Government Institution are reportable.

4. End of Reporting Period

Once a reporting period has ended, the officer responsible for filing will send out a reminder to enter any required information in the system to all the individuals in your organization who engage in lobbying activities.

If an individual has no information to enter, the individual will login in the system and log a Nil Report to confirm the individual is aware of his or her obligation to enter information, but has no information to enter.

Using a simple report, the officer responsible for filing can quickly see which individuals in your organization have entered communications for a reporting period, and which ones have indicated a Nil Report.

5. Reporting to the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada

The officer responsible for filing will use the system to generate a synthesized report that will contain only the information that must be reported to the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada. The officer responsible for filing will then log into the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada’s web site and enter the information in the Registry of Lobbyists.