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Treasury Board President Stockwell Day arrives on Parliament Hill for the Conservative summer caucus meeting on Aug. 5, 2010.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

The Harper government is expanding the reach of the Lobbying Act for all MPs and senators, even if they are in opposition, in a bid to close loopholes exposed by the Jaffer affair.

The opposition parties welcomed the proposed changes, although they are still concerned that the onus remains solely on lobbyists to publicly report their contacts with government officials and parliamentarians.

The government is taking action after the controversy involving former Conservative MP Rahim Jaffer, who had frequent contacts with government officials on behalf of a number of companies after he lost his Edmonton seat in the 2008 general election.

Mr. Jaffer said he did not need to register as a lobbyist because he was not paid for any of his efforts, and the RCMP has cleared him of any criminal wrongdoing.

Still, Conservative and opposition MPs have raised questions about the legitimacy of his unregistered contacts with various Conservative officials, including parliamentary secretaries who were out of the act's reach at that point.

"It's the government's own actions that have created the need for these revisions," Liberal MP Mark Holland said.

Under the old rules, the Lobbying Act forced lobbyists to publicly register their formal contacts with ministers, senior political aides and high-ranking bureaucrats. As of Sept. 20, when the House comes back for its fall sitting, all MPs, senators and senior personnel in the office of the leader of the opposition will be subject to the Lobbying Act, and will have to wait five years after leaving office to legally lobby the government.

"It is only right that the activities of all those who represent Canadians in Parliament be as open and transparent as possible," Treasury Board President Stockwell Day said.

NDP House Leader Libby Davies welcomed the changes, but said they should go further. From now on, Ms. Davies said, all MPs should report on their meetings with lobbyists, instead of calling on lobbyists to report their communications with public office holders.

"It should go further, in terms of members of Parliament themselves registering when they've been lobbied, so it can be clear if there are lobbying overtures and work being done by people who are not registered [as lobbyists]" Ms. Davies said.

A watchdog of the lobbying industry, Democracy Watch, said the new rules will still not go far enough because the definition of a lobbyist is too narrow, and because not all types of communications have to be publicly registered.

"Secret e-mails, letters and secret informal phone calls and meetings will still be allowed," the group said.

Mr. Day said that people and groups will have 30 days to debate the new regulations. He added that the entire Lobbying Act will be up for review in the fall, and that further changes will be considered at that time. While he did not close the door to government officials and parliamentarians reporting on their contacts with lobbyists, he said the rules have to be practical.

"There were issues that were brought forward by members of Parliament and others about what if you encounter somebody at a social event? What constitutes lobbying? To try and keep this as open as possible, but as reasonable as possible, the provisions have been put in place like this," he said.

The Liberal Party said it would have been better to bring the entire act before a parliamentary committee, which could have studied all potential amendments at the same time.

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