Saskatchewan’s Lobbyist Act and Conflict of Interest Legislation will see some amendments. The province has introduced changes to promote transparency and enhance accountability among provincially elected officials.

Justice Minister Don Morgan says it will ensure the public knows who is lobbying and who plans to lobby elected officials. There are also guidelines for elected officials to follow regarding conflicts of interest.

The amendments include prohibiting in-house lobbyists or consultant lobbyists from providing gifts, favours or other benefits to public office holders, and reducing the threshold for registration as a lobbyist from 100 hours to 30 hours.

NDP Ethics and Democracy Critic, David Forbes, says a smaller loophole isn’t good enough. He suggests under the new threshold, a lobbyist could meet a Minister for coffee every week for more than 6 months without anybody knowing. He suggests the threshold should be eliminated so all lobbying activity is on the public record.