In the first edition of a new regular feature looking at lobbying efforts by the players in Canada’s innovation economy, The Logic analyzed thousands of recent lobbyist registrations with governments across Canada, at the federal, provincial and municipal levels. 

In this installment: the maker of the Canadarm is looking for help with the latest sequel; groups are lining up for a share of Alberta’s promised new innovation spending; and the world’s largest asset manager wants a change to Canada’s tax code.

Who will pay for the next Canadarm?: MDA is looking for money from Ontario to “retain jobs and create jobs with the advanced manufacturing and AI for the development of a base station for the Canadarm3 and the lunar gateway project,” according to an entry in the provincial lobbying registry. The company has a robotics facility in Brampton and a geospatial services team in Ottawa. It’s also looking “to obtain service contracts and financial benefits” from British Columbia and wants money from Quebec to help it secure a contract with satellite firm Telesat. MDA obtained a $190-million contract back in May to support robotic operations on the International Space Station, a few months after a group of Canadian magnates bought the firm back from a U.S. ownership group. MDA declined to comment. 

Lyft and the labour minister: Lyft Canada registered to lobby the federal government directly for the first time, securing a meeting with Labour Minister Filomena Tassi. The August 26 tête-à-tête “will help inform the conversations we will have when we launch formal consultations on how best to implement protections for gig economy workers in the federally regulated sector,” Dustin Fitzpatrick, Tassi’s press secretary, told The Logic. Lyft declined to comment.

Telesat turns to the provinces: The Ottawa-based satellite-broadband company secured $85 million from the federal government in July 2019 and also obtained a federal commitment to buy $600 million worth of broadband-internet capacity over a decade. Now, it’s turned to some of the largest provincial governments in the country. The firm is looking for a grant or loan of an unspecified amount from Quebec to deploy its satellites, according to its registration. Telesat is asking Ontario for $20 million, according to its Alberta registration, as well as an unspecified amount from Alberta. The push for new funding comes as Telesat is reportedly looking to go public. Telesat and Ontario declined to comment, while Quebec did not respond. 

BlackRock wants to change the tax code: The world’s largest asset manager, with US$7.81 trillion under management, registered three lobbyists in September to speak with Finance Canada. BlackRock is looking for a change to the part of the Income Tax Act that governs how much corporations based outside of Canada need to pay in tax, according to its registration. The company, which first registered to lobby for the change in 2018, didn’t respond to questions about what alteration it wanted. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s office didn’t respond to inquiries.

The race for Alberta’s new innovation money: Tech hub Platform Calgary registered to lobby the provincial government for funding two days after The Logic reported that MaRS Discovery District was looking to expand to Calgary and effectively compete for government funding. “The Government of Alberta has identified tech and innovation as key areas of focus in the Alberta Recovery Plan,” said Platform Calgary spokesperson Vanessa Gagnon, referring to the plan released in August. “We are looking to share our expertise and collaborate to build the strongest tech and innovation ecosystem in Canada, which will lead to further job creation and economic development.” The Intellectual Property Institute of Canada has also registered to lobby Alberta for policy incentives for IP creation and commercialization. In September, Alberta announced it wanted to update its IP laws. “Our government will move faster than any province to modernize our intellectual property rules, and we will be launching a consultation on that shortly,” said Alberta innovation minister press secretary Justin Brattinga.

Red Hat’s ambitious goal: IBM bought Red Hat for US$34 billion last year in one of the largest U.S. tech acquisitions ever. IBM is now hoping to double sales at that firm over the next three years; contracts with Canadian governments could play a role. Red Hat is working with the City of Toronto on its Linux system and OpenShift platform, and recently registered to lobby the City for more funds. “Although Red Hat has recently registered to lobby the City on digital transformation and service modernization, we are not currently collaborating with them on these initiatives,” Lawrence Eta, Toronto’s chief technology officer, told The Logic. The company has also registered to lobby Quebec, and is looking to emulate the success it had working with British Columbia on a developers’ exchange. In Ontario, Red Hat wants to “identify opportunities for collaboration on a centralized data platform with various Ontario ministries related to Ontario’s response to COVID-19.” 

Google wants in, too: Google’s cloud division recently registered to lobby Winnipeg and Toronto for potential contracts, as well as British Columbia, where it secured a meeting with Finance Minister and Deputy Premier Carole James. “Cloud products and services have been especially helpful for governments around the world as they face the challenges of COVID and our local sales team naturally has reached out to offer more information on the products and services that can help during this time,” said Google spokesperson Molly Morgan. The City of Toronto is working with Google on its COVID-19 Conversational Chatbot, which launched in early May to pull information for users from the City’s website. However, the City is not currently working with Google on remote-work practices, community-mobility reports or network infrastructure as it relates to the COVID-19 pandemic, areas the company says it wants to work on in its registration. Google also has older registrations to sell its cloud contracts with governments including Alberta and the federal government. 

Canada 2020 in Europe: The think tank with extensive ties to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau registered with the European Union because it wants to host a conference about post-pandemic recovery. The conference will have five themes: democracy and institutions, shared prosperity, inclusive societies, global public health and environmental conservation. 

Nota bene:

• Futurpreneur received $20.1 million from the federal government in April to help young entrepreneurs. It’s now lobbying Manitoba and Nova Scotia for funds, and told The Logic that conversations with both provinces are going well. 
• Alcanna, the largest private retailer of alcohol in Canada, is lobbying Alberta about cannabis. The company is touting the merits of selling cannabis in the province using the same model currently in place for alcohol sales. 
• Loblaw is also lobbying on liquor policies in Alberta. The firm expanded its PC Optimum loyalty program in July so Alberta customers could earn points on alcohol purchases. 
• Expedia wants Ontario to ensure short-term rentals remain essential workplaces during the pandemic, and is promoting the regulation of private-sector data privacy at the federal—not provincial—level. 
• The BC Tech Association is looking for $31 million over five years to fund accelerator programs.
• Bird Canada wants Nova Scotia to permit e-scooters on public roads. Lyft is lobbying to bring them to Toronto. 
• RBC senior vice-president John Stackhouse registered a communication with B.C. Premier John Horgan. The bank said the two didn’t meet, but rather that the bank sent a report on how Canada can recover economically to the premier and the leader of the official opposition, Andrew Wilkinson.
• E-Taxi is asking Quebec for an additional subsidy for people buying electric taxis and wants a ban on the use of gasoline vehicles by the taxi industry. 
• Alberta distributed government benefits during the pandemic using Interac’s e-Transfer feature. The firm wants to do the same in Saskatchewan, but that government hasn’t yet bit.
• Square registered in B.C. in hopes of getting the government to “create programs similar to Ontario’s Digital Main Street program,” in which Square is a partner. 
• IBM hired a lobbyist for its negotiation on an updated enterprise software agreement “in core systems areas” with Ontario. The firm directed questions to the government, which did not answer them. 
• Software firm Dye & Durham, which went public in July, is lobbying Ontario to continue operating a digital business registry for the province.