Recommendation 1:

All public servants serving in a Director General’s position, or serving in a more senior position than Director General, should now be considered Designated Public Office Holders and held subject to all applicable laws governing this designation.

Recommendation 2:

Remove the ‘significant part of duties’ threshold for in-house lobbyists.

Recommendation 3:

Eliminate the distinction between in-house lobbyists (corporations) and in-house lobbyists (organizations).

Recommendation 4:

Require in-house lobbyists to file a registration, along with the senior officer of the company or organization.

Recommendation 5:

Ensure that monthly communications reports contain the names of all in-house lobbyists who attended oral pre-arranged meetings [in addition to the senior reporting officer].

Recommendation 6:

Allow board members (corporation and association directors), partners and sole proprietors to be included in an in-house lobbyist’s returns.

Recommendation 7:

Impose an explicit ban on the receipt of gifts from lobbyists.

Recommendation 8:

Prohibit an individual or entity from lobbying the government on a subject matter, if they have a contract to provide advice to a public office holder on the same subject matter.

Recommendation 9:

The five-year ban should be retained, and post-employment restrictions on public office holders should be interpreted and administered by a single authority.

Recommendation 10:

Enshrine the administrative review process in the Act.

Recommendation 11:

Empower the Commissioner of Lobbying to impose administrative monetary penalties. Perhaps consider temporary bans for breaches of the law (as in the Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec provincial legislation).