B.C. Registrar of Lobbyists announces six-month pause on lobbying violation fines

The Office of the Registrar of Lobbyists (ORL) in British Columbia has announced a temporary freeze on fines for unregistered organizations and consultant lobbyists. 

Running until the end of September, “the purpose of this temporary ‘fine freeze’ is to increase transparency by helping unregistered organizations, non-profits and consultant lobbyists understand their legal obligations and to onboard them with the registration process,” the ORL wrote in an announcement.

“Lobbying is an important part of the democratic process,” said Registrar of Lobbyists Michael Harvey. “It is one way in which public officers hear about what society needs and wants from their government and public.

“But for lobbying to properly play its role in a democracy it has to be transparent. That means registering in our online Registry.” 

Registrar Harvey encouraged anybody “who is just now discovering their legal obligations to come forward.”

Organizations and consultant lobbyists are eligible for the fine freeze only if they have never been deemed non-compliant by the ORL and have not been registered since May 4, 2020. 

Those who are registered must continue to adhere to the Lobbyists Transparency Act’s (LTA) requirements. Certain violations of the LTA are not exempt from fines for this period.  

Last year, research conducted by Vantage Point and the BC Non-Profit Network found that some non-profits had stopped engaging with the provincial government altogether because of “onerous and confusing” legislation around reporting lobbying activity. 

At the time, Vantage Point’s CEO Zahra Esmail said that “non-profits are uneasy at being conflated with lobbying by for-profit, commercial businesses.” 

There were no special exemptions for non-profits and social purpose organizations in terms of what they had to report to the B.C. ORL, and requirements included reporting any grants or non-repayable contributions received from any level of government. 

In 2025 alone, four of the six organizations that were deemed non-compliant under the Lobbyists Transparency Act were social purpose organizations: the British Columbia Nurses’ Union, the Vancouver Humane Society, the Arts Club of Vancouver Theatre, and Atira Women’s Resource Society. 

No violations or fines have been published on the B.C. ORL’s website for 2026 thus far. British Columbia’s lobbying transparency regulation has been referred to as “one of the most expansive lobbying laws in North America [with] one of the most aggressive regulators.”