OTTAWA — As new federal ministers settled into their jobs and staffed up their offices, the lobbyists hoping to influence them kicked into overdrive, registering nearly 6,700 lobbying contacts from the beginning of December to the end of February.

Here’s some of what they’ve been talking about.

Can we interest you in some helicopters? In July, Canada is set to issue a contract to upgrade its fleet of CH-149 Cormorant helicopters. The search-and-rescue choppers began entering service in 2001, and the government wants this mid-life overhaul to make them last until 2042 or further. The billion-dollar project is to be sole-sourced to Italy’s Leonardo, but in January the company lobbied several Conservative MPs.

The company is also registered to lobby on the “enhancement of Royal Canadian Air Force rotary-wing search-and-rescue assets and capabilities.”

Airbus Helicopters Canada is also looking for business from National Defence, though that’s not what its president and COO, Dwayne Charette, was talking to four MPs (a Liberal, a Tory, a New Democrat and a Bloquiste) about in January. Those contacts were about taxation policy; Airbus is registered to lobby on the impact of the Liberal government’s planned luxury tax on expensive cars, aircraft and boats, and Airbus worries about the impact of the tax on the helicopter industry.

Or perhaps an IT security application? Zighra says it has “a security solution that combines artificial intelligence, behavioural biometrics, sensor analytics and environmental intelligence to reduce or eliminate the need for passwords and continuously protect the user and workforce identities.” It wants to use a federal procurement program that lets federal institutions test out early-stage tech solutions, and pitched itself to Anand, Treasury Board President Mona Fortier and Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, among others, in January.

Seeking money for a big battery factory: Britishvolt announced in October 2021 that it wants to build a battery “gigafactory” in Quebec, but it evidently wants some public money to help. Since January, it’s approached numerous officials at Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) and Environment and Climate Change Canada, plus the chief of staff and policy advisors to Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, for one purpose: “Obtaining financial support from the federal government for the construction of a battery-manufacturing plant in Canada.” Britishvolt’s lobbying corps includes former Quebec premier Philippe Couillard.

Seeking money for computer graphics: Vancouver’s AMPD Ventures makes cloud-based products for graphics rendering, in motion pictures and games and wants the government to know about it, so its reps had multiple contacts to build awareness and “explore possible financial support for AMPD’s activities from undetermined sources.” Its lobbying targets included aides to the ministers of heritage, innovation, the Atlantic Canada development agency, international development and trade, plus officials in ISED’s digital-technologies directorate.

Special delivery: Amazon Canada Fulfillment Services, the online vendor’s warehouse and delivery arm, says it wants to “work with government to facilitate the process of selling goods and services online, and delivering them to consumers,” and make sure Canada has a skilled tech workforce. It was busy in late 2021 and early 2022, making 10 representations to MPs, Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez, plus senior Finance Canada aide Tyler Meredith on several occasions.

Clearing the way for clearer vision: Nova Oculus Canada is seeking Health Canada approval for a device meant to treat age-related macular degeneration—a cause of gradually worsening central vision—with a device that administers electrical currents. Until last fall, when he left under the terms of a settlement with the Security and Exchange Commission, the Alberta businessman, former Edmonton Oilers owner and Gretzky vendor Peter Pocklington was a senior figure with the company.

Its representatives have been contacting MPs and senators, who have no direct influence over the federal department’s regulatory work; the company didn’t respond to an inquiry from The Logic about the nature of its efforts.

Keeping the air clean (1): ParticleOne, which says it has software “that measures, models and reduces the risk of viral transmission within a space,” wants the federal government to buy it for use in federal buildings. Lobbyist Monique Smith, a former Ontario minister, has hit up officials at Public Services and Procurement Canada and Global Affairs Canada, and ministerial aides in the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (where another former Ontario minister, Helena Jaczek, is in charge) and to Seniors Minister Kamal Khera.

Keeping the air clean (2): The Canadian Council for Sustainable Aviation Fuels came out of stealth mode just last week, but it had already been lobbying Transport Canada, Environment Canada and Natural Resources Canada for months. Created by airlines, the group is registered to lobby specifically for policies that favour the deployment of sustainable aviation fuels in Quebec, and to set national standards that line up with international ones.

Planting the seeds: In the weeks before Health Canada approved Medicago’s vaccine against COVID-19, the Quebec-based pharma company’s CEO Takashi Nagao had several contacts with top officials at ISED, including deputy minister Simon Kennedy, senior assistant deputy minister Eric Costen and associate assistant deputy minister Colette Kaminsky (who is in charge of the subsidy-dispensing Strategic Innovation Fund). Medicago got more than $21 million in federal funding in the last fiscal year and is registered to lobby for more funding and federal support for immunization and the pharma industry more broadly.

Also in pharma: Moderna Canada continued lobbying at senior levels of Health Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada, ISED and PSPC, over its mRNA technology and COVID-19 vaccine, and the federal government’s general pandemic-preparedness strategy.

Just one shot, aimed at the top: Intact Financial Corporation, an insurance company with a major interest in natural disasters and climate change, has a single lobbying contact so far in 2022: deputy minister of finance Michael Sabia.