Since the Trudeau Liberals came to power, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), a coalition of over 2,000 local governments, communicated with cabinet members 175 times. It had the ear of all kinds of senior ministers, from labour, to heritage, to foreign affairs, all the way to the prime minister.

Of the roughly 6,470 lobbying groups active since late 2015, it was among the 1,340 that met with the country’s most senior politicians, and in the top 2.6 per cent of lobbyists who met with them at least 50 times.