Even The Left Is Confused About Lobbyist Register

Are there no other juridictions that have a lobby registry? If the mayor or a councillor during a protracted labour negotiation talks to a union rep outside of the room where negotiations are taking place is the councillor a lobbyist....we know the union rep isn't because they are exempt which is the only thing clear about this whole farce.

Backroom boondoggle
Will much-needed lobbyist registry stop us from calling our councillors?
By MIKE SMITH

At its first meeting on Monday , January 15, the executive committee gave a slow but unanimous nod (we'll take that over the rapid and fractious sort) to recommendations for a six-month trial tracking influence-peddlers.

Pending council's approval next month, lobbyists will have to register with the city before they can ply their trade with any councillors or staff in private, outside of established processes, and log any business-related communications.

Frequent calls for such a system have come from within and without council (including the mayor), but while City Hall's first steps are good medicine, there is some danger of over-medication.

"If people come to their councillor about having a tree removed," asked a seemingly unconvinced licensing chair Howard Moscoe, "are they lobbyists?" Similar questions from staff dominated the meeting, as some councillors mostly Moscoe and Gloria Lindsay Luby endeavoured to untangle undue influence from simple interlocution.

The difficulty, which will no doubt soon spread beyond the executive's bounds, is grappling with the system's implications. So is someone seeking tree removal a lobbyist? No. Or, well, maybe.

Let's make a deal.......