Push for lobbyist registry at Markham city hall continues despite latest rejection

Yorkregion.com
Feb. 10. 2022

A lobbyist registry continues to be a hard sell in Markham after council voted to defer any decision on the matter until after the municipal election.

And that’s bad news for an open and transparent city hall and the public’s trust in democracy, says Coun. Reid McAlpine, who spearheaded the proposal to implement one in December.

“Residents expect transparency. They expect to know what their elected politicians and senior city staff are up to and who they're talking to, particularly when they're meeting with people who have an impact on really important decisions that are being made.”

While nothing nefarious may be going on, from the outside it often doesn’t look that way, and a formal mechanism that discloses what discussions are taking place would be a means of ensuring that everything is above board, McAlpine says, adding lobbying isn’t a problem, it just needs to be out in the open.

“When there's no window into that process, people substitute worst-case scenarios into those voids of information.”

And that leads to concerns that private backroom deals inappropriately influence public policy.

Unionville Residents Association member Peter Miasek suspects the majority of lobbying activity relates to development and developers at the municipal level of government.

“We fully respect that the development industry has a right, and indeed an obligation, to its shareholders to pursue its legitimate objectives. How they do this, however, is not as transparent as it could be in our view.”

Canadian anti-corruption activist and lifelong Markham resident Marcus Kolga agrees.

Kolga is among the residents, former political staffers, municipal government relations strategists and professional lobbyists, including lobbying legislation expert Guy Giorno, and Democray Watch's Duff Conacher, who made deputations in support of documented full disclosure.

“No elected officials should fear greater transparency or public scrutiny of their council activities,” said Kolga, adding Markham remains a “dubious outlier” compared to most other major jurisdictions and municipalities, including the federal and provincial governments, as well as the cities of Toronto, Vaughan, Brampton and Hamilton, that have long adopted lobbyist registries.

While an Integrity Commissioner was put in place in 2013 and an Auditor General in 2014, a lobbyist registry has always been deferred, despite being tabled at council several times since 2010.

“This is the only thing that I can think of that's been deferred and deferred and deferred,” said Coun. Karen Rea, who supported a registry in her 2018 election bid and says she will do so again in 2022.

“A lobbyist registration system is just another tool for accountability.”

Mayor Frank Scarpitti, however, was among councillors who balked at a registry saying it was “a total waste of time and money.”

“I’ll meet with whomever I want as Mayor of Markham … and full disclosure, I never say no,” he said, adding meeting with anyone who wants to invest in the city is “the natural course of business.”

He added his direct involvement in the process of working through issues has avoided costly Ontario Municipality Board hearings on at least a dozen developments, including the recent York Downs application.

McAlpine said councillors were getting "lost in the weeds," especially since his proposal was just seeking endorsement in principle.

"People weren't even prepared to go that far, claiming they needed more information, but we have more information than you could shake a stick at this point, certainly to make the decision to approve it in principle."

He added there's nothing to stop any member of council, including the mayor, from meeting with anybody under a registry.

"It's been done successfully in lots of cases, so we don't have to reinvent the wheel here,” said McAlpine.

Kolga said Markham residents will have their chance to demand greater accountability from their elected officials by voting in the October election for councillors who support putting an end to "unaccountable influence trafficking" through a transparent lobbyist registry.