Legislative Assembly of Alberta The 29th Legislature Third Session Standing Committee on Resource Stewardship Lobbyists Act Review Office of the Property Rights Advocate Tuesday, July 4, 2017 9 a.m. Transcript No. 29-3-8 Legislative Assembly of Alberta The 29th Legislature Third Session Standing Committee on Resource Stewardship Loyola, Rod, Edmonton-Ellerslie (ND), Chair Hunter, Grant R., Cardston-Taber-Warner (W), Deputy Chair Babcock, Erin D., Stony Plain (ND) Clark, Greg, Calgary-Elbow (AP) Dang, Thomas, Edmonton-South West (ND) Drysdale, Wayne, Grande Prairie-Wapiti (PC) Hanson, David B., Lac La Biche-St. Paul-Two Hills (W) Kazim, Anam, Calgary-Glenmore (ND) Kleinsteuber, Jamie, Calgary-Northern Hills (ND) Loewen, Todd, Grande Prairie-Smoky (W) MacIntyre, Donald, Innisfail-Sylvan Lake (W) Malkinson, Brian, Calgary-Currie (ND) Nielsen, Christian E., Edmonton-Decore (ND) Rosendahl, Eric, West Yellowhead (ND) Woollard, Denise, Edmonton-Mill Creek (ND) Office of the Ethics Commissioner Marguerite Trussler, QC Ethics Commissioner Lana Robins Lobbyist Registrar and General Counsel Support Staff Robert H. Reynolds, QC Clerk Shannon Dean Law Clerk and Director of House Services Trafton Koenig Parliamentary Counsel Stephanie LeBlanc Parliamentary Counsel Philip Massolin Manager of Research and Committee Services Sarah Amato Research Officer Nancy Robert Research Officer Corinne Dacyshyn Committee Clerk Jody Rempel Committee Clerk Aaron Roth Committee Clerk Karen Sawchuk Committee Clerk Rhonda Sorensen Manager of Corporate Communications Jeanette Dotimas Communications Consultant Tracey Sales Communications Consultant Janet Schwegel Managing Editor of Alberta Hansard Transcript produced by Alberta Hansard Standing Committee on Resource Stewardship Participant Ministry of Justice and Solicitor General Joan Neatby, Barrister and Solicitor, Legislative Reform July 4, 2017 Resource Stewardship RS-601 9 a.m. Tuesday, July 4, 2017 The Chair: Okay. Is there anybody else on the line that I’m Title: Tuesday, July 4, 2017 rs missing? I don’t believe so. [Loyola in the chair] Okay. Thank you, everyone. The microphone consoles are operated by Hansard staff, so The Chair: I’d like to call the meeting to order. Welcome to all there’s no need for members to touch them. Please ensure that all members, staff, and guests in attendance for this meeting of the cellphones, iPhones, and BlackBerrys are in silent mode. Audio and Standing Committee on Resource Stewardship. My name is Rod video of committee proceedings are streamed live on the Internet Loyola, and I am the MLA for Edmonton-Ellerslie and chair of this and recorded by Hansard. committee. Up next is the approval of the agenda. Before approving an I would ask that members and those joining the committee at the agenda for our meeting today, I would note that all MLAs have been table introduce themselves for the record, and then I’ll call on the invited to the swearing-in of Marianne Ryan, the new Ombudsman members teleconferencing to introduce themselves. We’ll start off and Public Interest Commissioner. If it is the will of this committee, here to my right. we could take an early lunch break at around 11 a.m. to facilitate attendance at the ceremony for those who are interested. Is this Mr. Hanson: David Hanson, MLA, Lac La Biche-St. Paul-Two something committee members would be interested in? Would Hills. people like to break at 11 a.m., or would people prefer to continue Mr. Loewen: Todd Loewen, MLA, Grande Prairie-Smoky. and go on? Okay. I’m hearing keep going. Okay. We will just keep going until 12 p.m. Ms Neatby: Joan Neatby, Justice and Solicitor General. I understand we missed somebody in our intro. Sorry. Please go ahead. Ms Robins: Lana Robins, lobbyist registrar and general counsel, office of the Ethics Commissioner. Mr. Dang: Sorry, Mr. Chair. It’s Thomas Dang, MLA for Edmonton-South West. Good morning, everybody. Ms Trussler: Marguerite Trussler, Ethics Commissioner. The Chair: Okay. Thank you very much, sir. Mr. Nielsen: Good morning. Chris Nielsen, MLA, Edmonton- Okay. Would a member move a motion to approve the agenda, Decore. please? Okay. Thank you, Mr. Kleinsteuber. All in favour of the motion? Anybody opposed? Okay. Thank you. That motion for the Ms Woollard: Good morning. Denise Woollard, Edmonton-Mill approval of the agenda is carried. Creek. I’m just going to remind people that my practice instead of asking Mr. Rosendahl: Good morning. Eric Rosendahl, MLA, West for those who are in favour of the motion and then going to opposed Yellowhead. and then going to the phones – I just prefer those that are on the phone, when I ask if you’re in favour of the motion, please say aye Mr. Kleinsteuber: Good morning. Jamie Kleinsteuber, the MLA at that time, and if you are opposed, then say that you are opposed for Calgary-Northern Hills. at that time, okay? We have the minutes from our last meeting. Are there any errors Mr. Malkinson: Brian Malkinson, MLA for Calgary-Currie. or omissions to note? If not, would a member move adoption of the minutes, please? Okay. Thank you, Mr. Nielsen. All in favour of Ms Robert: Good morning. Nancy Robert, research officer. the motion to accept the minutes from the previous meeting, say Dr. Massolin: Good morning. Philip Massolin, manager of aye. Anybody opposed? Okay. Thank you. That motion is carried. research and committee services. We are now going to go into our primary business here today, to complete our review of the Lobbyists Act. Before we return to our Ms Dean: Good morning. Shannon Dean, Law Clerk and director deliberations, the Ethics Commissioner and her colleagues have of House services. offered to give us a brief demonstration of how the lobbyist registry works. At this point I would like to turn the floor over to our guests Ms Rempel: Good morning. Jody Rempel, committee clerk. from the office of the Ethics Commissioner to proceed with a presentation, and then I want to open the floor to questions from The Chair: Okay. We’ll now go to members on the phone. I committee members. Please go ahead, Commissioner. believe we have Mr. Hunter. Ms Robins: Good morning, committee members, and thank you for Mr. Hunter: Yes. Good morning. Grant Hunter, MLA for inviting us to give you a demonstration of the Alberta lobbyist Cardston-Taber-Warner and deputy chair. registry today. Before we get going, would it be possible to dim the lights a little bit so you could see the screens a little better? Perfect. The Chair: Since he’s just called in, we’ll go to Mr. Clark to introduce himself. Thank you. Okay. I’m going to start by doing a brief overview of the website, Mr. Clark: Good morning. Greg Clark, MLA, Calgary-Elbow. followed by a quick walk-through of how to set up an account as a lobbyist and then how to file a registration as a lobbyist. I’m also The Chair: Okay. We’ve got Ms Babcock on the line. going to demonstrate some of the registrar’s functions. In the interest of time I’m just going to hit the key points of those various Ms Babcock: Good morning. Erin Babcock, MLA for Stony Plain. elements. The website is albertalobbyistregistry.ca, which is what is up on The Chair: And we have Member Kazim on the line as well. the screen right now. As you can see, there are several tabs going Ms Kazim: Good morning. Anam Kazim, MLA for Calgary- across the top of the screen. If you quickly run through those, the Glenmore. home screen is just some information about our office, history of RS-602 Resource Stewardship July 4, 2017 the legislation on the Home tab. Moving to the right, the For 9:10 Lobbyists tab. This has just some more technical information for Okay. So now you can see the different columns. We’ve got filing lobbyists in terms of filing a registration, different things they need date, organization name, client name, senior officer, department to do in the application itself. The Registry Information tab just lobbied, prescribed provincial entity lobbied, subject matter of repeats the search registry function and also provides a few reports lobbying, the registration status – for the people on the phone, these and statistics on there. The Enforcement tab to the right just gives are just the different columns in the search chart – the registration some information on enforcement under the act. The Resources tab number, type of lobbyist, the lobbyist named in the registration, the to the right of that again has some guidance documents. I’m just type of registration, and then finally the View button, so a lot of going to quickly click on that. There are some useful guides and information on this chart. brochures for the public and for lobbyists here, lots of very good Actually, each of these columns is sortable and searchable. If I information in those. We also have the annual reports on the want to come over to filing date, I’m going to click on that. You can Resources tab, and then to the right we’ve got the FAQ, the see that you can search by registrations only filed in the last month, frequently asked questions, which is another really good resource for example. It brings up 87 registrations. There are all kinds of for information. search and sort capabilities. It’s an extremely interactive tool. If I I’m going to go back to the home screen here. Just scrolling want to come and search, if I’m looking for a particular organiza- down, I’m going to come back to just in the middle of the screen. tion, I can click on Organization, and then a list comes up in alpha- We’ve got a link to the Lobbyists Act and then a link to the betical order of all of the organizations that have filed.