Last November, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Jonathan Wilkinson and 27 guests sat down for an intimate wine and steak dinner in downtown Vancouver.
Hosted at a high-end Italian restaurant with foie gras, octopus risotto, and wagyu beef on the menu, the guests were all top Liberal Party donors who had donated hundreds of dollars to the party in the past year.
Among them were Sajjid Lakhani and Diamond Isinger. Both are paid lobbyists registered to meet with Natural Resources Canada.
Lakhani and Isinger are not the only lobbyists to have attended paid party fundraisers in the past year. Lobbyists are among the top attendees of Liberal Party fundraising events featuring Canada’s most powerful politicians, an IJF analysis of federal party fundraising from the past year reveals.
Three months before the dinner, Lakhani met with an official at Natural Resources Canada on behalf of the Heating, Refrigeration & Air Conditioning Institute of Canada. Lakhani had been lobbying for a new financial incentive for Canadians to upgrade their building’s heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems.
Isinger represents the Public Voice Fund’s Climate Caucus, which had been lobbying for more federal money for municipalities to spend on climate change programs. Two weeks after the event, Isinger met with an advisor for Natural Resources Canada on behalf of the Climate Caucus.
On December 14, 2023, Minister Wilkinson announced that the federal government had partnered with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to grant $1.24 million in funding for municipalities to set up programs incentivizing homeowners to upgrade to more energy-efficient systems.
Lakhani did not respond to requests for comment, while Isinger declined an interview for this story.
Allowing lobbyists to attend ticketed fundraisers amounts to an “unethical cash-for-access scheme,” said Duff Conacher, co-founder of the democratic accountability non-profit Democracy Watch. “It's allowing those who can afford it to use money as a means of buying influence.”
The IJF analyzed the guest lists for all paid Liberal fundraisers in 2023 and found 22 people who attended four or more events, representing the top 0.5 per cent of all attendees. Of those 22 people, six are lobbyists.
The Liberal Party promised back in 2017 to crack down on lobbyists attending ticketed fundraisers hosted by the prime minister or other cabinet members. The calls for stricter rules came after Trudeau became embroiled in a cash-for-access scandal after attending exclusive fundraising dinners hosted by wealthy businesspeople.
Trudeau admitted in 2016 that he gets lobbied at these fundraising events. Nevertheless, Trudeau claimed he does not listen to their appeals, saying, “decisions I take in government are ones based on what is right for Canadians and not on what an individual in a fundraiser might say.”
Party leadership later that year sent an internal letter to the Liberal caucus telling politicians to review their fundraiser guest lists in advance and turn away lobbyists.
Despite these changes, the IJF reported in 2023 that lobbyists were present at more than a third of ticketed fundraisers between 2019 and 2022.
Parker Lund, director of communications for the Liberal Party, did not directly answer questions on why lobbyists were attending fundraisers despite the Liberals' past promises to crack down on their attendance.
“The Liberal Party of Canada has committed to the strongest standards in federal politics for openness and transparency with political fundraising events,” said Lund.
The Liberal Party holds two types of paid events: fundraisers requiring a ticket purchase and exclusive Laurier Club events that do not require a ticket but are only open to the party’s top donors. The party also holds free-to-attend fundraisers where donations are encouraged but not required.
A donor to the Liberal Party can join the Laurier Club if they donate the legal annual maximum to a national party, which in 2024 is $1,725.
Lund added that the party is still committed to “checking to see if attendees are registered to lobby the relevant office of a special quest” in advance of a ticketed fundraiser. However, Lund clarified that this step is not taken for “donor appreciation events” such as those held for Laurier Club members.
When signing up to attend a Liberal fundraiser, attendees are asked to check a box affirming that, if they are a registered lobbyist, they are attending in a “personal capacity only” and agree that they will not lobby elected officials at the event, Lund added.
Conacher said he was unconvinced that attending in a “personal capacity” prevents the unfair influencing of politicians. “When a lobbyist is attending a fundraising event, the minister knows what they want. And the minister knows they’re making a significant donation,” he said.
“The whole profession … of lobbying is about networking,” said Bryan Evans, professor of politics and public administration at Toronto Metropolitan University. “Part of your livelihood entails networking and meeting people who may be in positions to hear you, be influenced by you.”
Some lobbyists may not directly lobby at these events by bringing up clients’ concerns, but “it can also be about becoming known, introducing yourself, maybe arranging a follow-up in a month,” added Evans.
Richard Maksymetz, a lobbyist with the firm ALAR Strategy Group, attended four Laurier Club events in the past year. Three of these events featured employment minister Randy Boissonnault, who Maksymetz is registered to lobby.
Maksymetz confirmed over email that he had attended Liberal events in the past year, although he said he was there in a “personal capacity.”
“I enjoy the opportunity to connect with the other donors, many of whom are longtime friends and to catch up, swap stories,” said Maksymetz. “I have been a consistent financial supporter of the party for more than 20 years now and barring some unforeseen cataclysmic reordering of Canada’s political environment, I will be a financial supporter of the Liberal party for the rest of my life.”
Laurier Club supporters were invited last July to a café for a Calgary Stampede reception hosted by the prime minister, treasury board president Anita Anand, and Boissonnault.
Just two months prior, Maksymetz met with Boissonnault on behalf of his client, Woodfibre LNG, to discuss “potential collaboration” with the government. Woodfibre LNG is constructing a liquid natural gas facility in Squamish, BC. In September, Woodfibre signed a contract to sell the facility’s output to oil and gas giant BP.
In total, Maksymetz met with Boissonnault or his staff seven times throughout 2023 on behalf of five different clients in the energy, education, and healthcare sectors.
Maksymetz was previously the chief of staff to former Finance Minister Bill Morneau and the head of campaign mobilization for Trudeau’s national campaign in 2015.
Evans said it’s unsurprising that so many lobbyists have past ties to the party in government as they “have the networks, they have a kind of political capital in terms of being heard and being able to simply contact people and have their outreach responded to.”
Christian Von Donat, a lobbyist with Impact Public Affairs, also attended four Laurier Club fundraisers featuring cabinet ministers last year.
“I am a youth donor to this and other political parties, and attend events sometimes as part of that participation,” said Von Donat.
Youth donors (35 or younger) can join the Laurier Club at a discount. In 2024, the minimum required to join is $875.
“There is a difference in buying a ticket to attend a fundraiser, or being invited to an event that is complimentary because you have been a donor in the past,” said Von Donat.
The fundraisers attended by Von Donat featured the prime minister, deputy prime minister, and most of the Liberal cabinet.
An attendee's ability to speak with politicians one-on-one varies depending on the fundraising event. Attendance at events held by the Liberal Party in the past year ranged from less than a dozen to several hundred people.
Both Evans and Conacher agreed that lowering the individual donation limit and increasing the restrictions around lobbying would help encourage transparency and strengthen democracy.
“The key thing would be taking a hard look at caps on donations, probably lowering them quite dramatically,” said Evans.
“If you lower the donation limit down to what it should be, below $100, then events are going to have to be large and in public to raise any amount of money,” said Conacher.
He also called for extending the time individuals have to wait after working for a politician or candidate before being able to lobby them. Individuals have to wait between one and five years before lobbying, depending on whether they previously worked in a more junior role like a campaign field organizer or a more senior one like an elected MP.