More Than a Dozen People Have Broken Lobbying Act Without Being Charged: Commissioner

Nancy Belanger, Commissioner of Lobbying waits to appear at the Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics committee, in Ottawa, June 20, 2023. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld

Over a dozen individuals have broken the Lobbying Act but have not been publicly named or charged, the lobbying commissioner told the House of Commons ethics committee.

While there are around 7,000 registered lobbyists in Ottawa, only four have been convicted or pleaded guilty to breaching the act in the last 38 years, Lobbying Commissioner Nancy Bélanger told the committee on May 7. She said more cases were referred to the RCMP but never made public.

“We review every matter. Many matters lead to files to the RCMP. It takes a lot of our time, it takes a lot of the RCMP’s time, and it’s returned to me and closed,” Bélanger said, as first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter.

Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed Bélanger to the role of lobbying commissioner in 2017, then appointed her to another seven-year term in 2024.

Responding to questioning from Conservative MP Michael Barrett, Bélanger said the RCMP has a different test than the lobbying commissioner to determine if the Lobbying Act has been violated. Bélanger also said Canadians can’t see the reports because “the way the Act is arranged right now, I can’t make findings of breaches [public].”

Bélanger said if the RCMP does not find an offence, she has no jurisdiction to rule otherwise. She added that she has referred 19 instances to the RCMP, but none of them have been reported publicly.

The four people censured under the act to date are Andrew Skaling, a former Conservative Party aide who pled guilty to illegal lobbying in 2013 and was fined $7,500; Bruce Carson, former advisor to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper, convicted in 2016 and fined $45,000; James Carroll, ex-Liberal Party national director, convicted in 2016 and fined $20,000; and Montreal executive Hervé Pouts, fined $9,000 in 2017.

Bélanger said other cases referred to the RCMP were permanently closed.

“No charges are laid, it’s sent back to me,” she said. “What am I supposed to do with that? The only thing I could do possibly is a report to Parliament to say, ‘Here’s what I did, here’s what the police did.’”

The Democracy Fund has been critical of Canada’s Lobbying Act, as it only requires some lobbyists to register and disclose some of their activities and communications. “The Act contains a ‘dirty dozen’ loopholes that allow for secret, unregistered lobbying,” the group said in a February 2026 press release.

The Democracy Fund said the act contains loopholes that allow registered lobbyists to “essentially bribe politicians and public officials” with gifts and favours.

The group has called for amendments to the Lobbying Act to require detailed disclosure of lobbying activities, give Canadians a formal right to file complaints and seek judicial review, and introduce mandatory escalating penalties for breaches of the act.