Lobby Registry - Another Failure Of The Leftists

You want to know why there is no formal lobby registry in place? It can be laid right on the doorstep of Miller and his leftist cronies who manipulated the process in such a way that clauses, like the exemption of unions, et al, would raise objections.

Lobbyists are lobbyists whether they are Bombardier or unions or enivronuts, social in-activists
or even you and I as private citizens.

Editorial: Lobbyist registry delayed needlessly

Sep. 28, 2006. 01:00 AM

Madam Justice Denise Bellamy could not have been more clear when she concluded more than a year ago that the city of Toronto "should establish and maintain a lobbyist registry." That was a main recommendation of her landmark inquiry into the city's computer leasing scandal. Her commendable goal was to prevent fresh episodes of corruption from further tainting politics at City Hall."No one should be permitted to engage in any lobbying activity at the city without first registering in the lobbyist registry," Bellamy wrote in the final report she delivered last September. There is no ambiguity there.What needs to be done is clear. Yet, more than 12 months after Bellamy's report, a mandatory lobbyist registry still has not been set up in Toronto. Just this week, a majority of city councillors rejected proposed rules for a registry and punted the issue back to city staff for review. It won't return for council's consideration until long after the Nov. 13 municipal election and likely won't surface again until well into next year.This needless delay is outrageous. It amounts to a breach of duty by city councillors, who should have acted decisively to ensure the bad old days of rampant cronyism and lobbyist pressure are truly over at City Hall.Meanwhile, a voluntary and hopelessly ineffective lobbyist registry remains in place. Most councillors have not bothered to participate in any consistent way. Ironically, even those on a steering committee to implement Bellamy's recommendations have been remiss. Four out of five councillors serving on the committee, whose job is to create a more accountable registry, failed to join fully in the voluntary system.Given that this is an election year, politics are partly responsible for the delay. Mayor David Miller had hoped to cite creation of a mandatory lobbyist registry as one of his accomplishments while in office. By voting for delay, Miller's opponents managed to derail that plan. They challenged the rules proposed for the mandatory registry, arguing that civic unions and non-profit groups were unfairly exempt. These organizations would have been free to lobby without any supervision or accountability. Miller should have closed that loophole before pressing ahead. Then his opponents would have found it far harder to speak against this measure.Unfortunately, by granting unions and non-profit groups an unnecessary and undesirable exemption from the rules, Miller's side laid the groundwork for defeat and for new delays in getting a lobbyist registry.The ultimate loser in all this is any Toronto resident interested in obtaining greater accountability from local elected officials.It's too late to bring about change before the election, now less than seven weeks away. But Toronto's next city council should make every effort to rapidly deliver a mandatory lobbyist registry. At the same time, Toronto's politicians should strive to get it right by axing the proposed exemption for paid lobbying done by unions and non-profit groups.