Mayor Farkas advances plan to create Calgary's first lobbyist registry

Calgary is one step closer to creating a public database tracking who is lobbying city council and administration, with the executive committee voting 10-1 Tuesday to advance Mayor Jeromy Farkas's motion to the full council.

The vote directs the city's chief administrative officer and ethics adviser to study what a lobbyist registry could look like, including best practices from other Canadian cities, estimated costs, and the city's legal authority to establish one. That review must be completed by the end of the year. The motion will go to council's full meeting on July 28 for a final vote.

Farkas said the registry is about catching up to larger jurisdictions like Toronto and making visible who is trying to influence municipal decisions on land use, procurement and policy. "If there's public money on the line and a private business entity is looking to influence city council or even a city administration decision, I believe that Calgarians have a right to know that information," he said.

Currently, Calgary has no mechanism to publicly log lobbying activity. City councillors are required to log who they meet with at their offices, but the requirement is not restricted to lobbyists. Ward 8 Coun. Nathaniel Schmidt said transparency helps rebuild public trust in government. "Right now, the expectation is on us to hold ourselves to a high standard," he said. "But having that level of accountability will only improve that."

Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot was the only vote against the technical review. The motion comes amid an ongoing RCMP investigation into members of the prior city council regarding a potential vote on a land-use application, though Farkas said he had campaigned on the registry idea in both 2021 and 2025.