Kelowna City Hall

(ROB MUNRO / iNFOnews.ca)

As one of the fastest growing cities in the country there are lots of people with a financial interest in the City of Kelowna’s decisions, and proposed changes to the lobbying bylaw aim to address that.

Kelowna is one of the only cities in B.C. with a lobbyist registry bylaw that allows the public to see who is trying to influence council’s decisions. The city is working on refocusing the law to target people with financial interest while still allowing easy access to elected officials for the average person.

“The idea is to reinforce transparency and accountability around who is engaging with council and on what topics,” city clerk Laura Bentley told iNFOnews.ca.

The lobbyist registry bylaw was adopted by council on Sept. 11, 2023, and so far 46 people have registered.

Of the 46 registrations 60 per cent of lobbyists were developers, 20 per cent represented community groups, and the rest either had no affiliation to any organization, or represented neighbourhood associations.

Council will hear city staff’s recommendations for changes to the bylaw at the regular council meeting on Monday, Jan. 13. Part of the recommendations include changing how the city defines lobbyists.

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The current policy says a lobbyist is anyone, whether paid or voluntary, who tries to influence council’s decision on an issue. The recommended new definition would limit the definition to paid lobbyists.

“A lot of residents, they'll connect with council about various topics and matters and don't really see themselves as lobbyists. And so it's to still give easy access to connect with council, while putting that emphasis on those who have some financial gain in whatever decision might be coming forward,” Bentley said.

Lobbying does not apply to city staff since they aren’t elected, but staff play an important role in city hall. Staff research a topic and prepare a report for council with recommendations, then city council takes it from there and makes the final decision.

“There's no reason to register if someone's just talking to staff,” Bentley said. “Staff are not the decision makers in terms of the type of decisions that are generally referenced here.”

The lobbyist registry bylaw doesn’t have a formal enforcement protocol. The only real measure to penalize someone who lobbies council without registering is council’s option to ignore that lobbyist.

This is somewhat new territory for a B.C. city since Surrey is the only other municipality in the province with lobbying bylaws. Port Moody decided against a lobbyist registry while New Westminster and Vancouver are looking into a framework for registering lobbyists.

Click here to see Kelowna's lobbyiest registry.

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