Lobbying is big business in Canada. Every day, there can be hundreds of meetings and phone calls between lobbyists and government officials at the federal level. Thousands of companies, industry associations and special interest groups try to influence policy, win government grants, or simply keep up with the agendas of decision makers.
Although not every instance of lobbying is recorded – there are several loopholes – the IJF collects data on all the ones that are. Here are nine findings from the Investigative Journalism Foundation’s analysis of 15 years of lobbying.