What is meant by “significant part of duties” in reference to in-house lobbyists?
Section 6(5) of the Lobbyists Registration Act defines the term in-house lobbyist as an employee of an organization, applying to both individual employees and a collective of employees, who may be conducting lobbying activities for the organization. The term significant part of duties is said by the regulation to occur when the accumulation of lobbying activities over a three-month period reaches the threshold of 20 per cent for either an individual employee’s time, or the combined times of more than one employee. This definition applies to time actually spent lobbying, not creating research papers etc. For example, if one assumes a five-day work week, then over a three month period a lobbyist (or group of employees) would have to be lobbying a minimum of four days per month to reach the 20 per cent threshold.
The Lobbyists’ Registration Act defines “significant part of duties” as when lobbying takes up 20 per cent (or more) of an employee’s time over a three-month period. For example, if one assumes a five-day workweek, then an employee would have to lobby at least 12 days over a three- month period to reach the 20 per cent threshold. If the time spent lobbying by 2 or more employees takes the equivalent of 20% or more of the time of one employee, each of the 2 or more employees must be registered as lobbyists.
