It’s full steam ahead for the new lobbyist registry for the Town of The Blue Mountains.
At its meeting on Nov. 12, The Blue Mountains council passed the bylaw to formally establish a lobbyist registry for the town.
Over the past several years, the town has been working to create a lobbyist registry for the community. For the past several months the town’s accountability and transparency committee has been studying the issue and bylaw to put the finishing touches on the project.
Council unanimously passed the bylaw with no comments on the matter. Clerk Corrina Giles said more information would be coming out in the next few weeks on the registry.
“There will be training that council will take as well as the public because there are requirements they have to follow as well if they are a lobbyist,” Giles said.
The training sessions will be set up in the coming weeks and there will be a six-month grace period to allow the public to get up to speed on the new requirements.
The town’s integrity commissioner – Principles Integrity – has been appointed the lobbyist registrar for the town.
The lobbyist registry is an online tool that works to provide accountability and transparency, as well as giving the public access to know who is communicating with elected officials. Lobbying is considered to be any communication with a public office holder by an individual who represents a business or financial interest with the goal of trying to influence legislative action.
With the registry lobbyists are required to disclose lobbying activities by identifying themselves, the client for which they are lobbying, the subject matter, the individual they lobbied, the method used for communication and the dates the communications occurred.
