Canadian Labour Congress President Hassan Yussuff talks to media while Director, Policy and Government Relations, CARP, Director, Marissa Semkiw listens during a press conference in Ottawa on Tuesday, February 6, 2018. iPolitics/Matthew Usherwood

Canada’s central labour body was the most active organization on the federal lobbying scene in February, largely because it held its annual meeting frenzy on the Hill over that period, which focused on a national pharmacare system.

READ MORE: ‘Hard to say’ whether Liberals can implement universal pharmacare within second term: Hajdu

The Canadian Labour Congress filed 151 communication reports with the federal Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying, nearly tripling the total of the next most active group.

When reached for comment, a CLC spokesperson attributed the high number of reports to the organization holding its annual lobby day on Feb. 25.

Most labour unions in Canada are affiliated with the CLC, whose president, Hassan Yussuff, has enjoyed a rather warm relationship with the current Liberal government. The unions that comprise the CLC represent 3.3 million workers in Canada.

In a press release distributed on the lobby day, the CLC said hundreds of union activists were meeting with MPs and Senators to “discuss issues they want to see addressed in this Parliament’s first budget — with national pharmacare as their top priority.”

“We know that universal, public pharmacare will be less expensive and keep more people healthy and out of the hospital,” Yussuff said in a prepared statement.

“For 7.5 million Canadians that are uninsured or underinsured, pharmacare won’t just change their lives, it can save them.”

Aside from pharmacare, the other top priorities for the CLC were listed as the need for a $15 federal minimum wage, “protections for worker pensions and the ratification of ILO Convention 190 on ending violence and harassment at work.”

The CLC says the creation of a federal minimum wage for workers in federally regulated workplaces “would lift up more than 70,000 workers,” who have been without a minimum wage since 1996.

All registered lobbyists and organizations must file reports with the commissioner’s office detailing any communications with designated public office holders regarding their advocacy activities. The communications cover in-person meetings, as well as scheduled phone calls.

READ MORE: Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada most active organization on lobbying circuit in January

The reports must detail the topics discussed and have to be filed by the 15th of the following month.

Collectively, there were 3,441 reports filed to the commissioner’s office in February, a nearly 107 per cent increase from the 1,665 reports filed in January. This is likely due to the then-upcoming federal budget, which has been indefinitely postponed amid the current COVID-19 pandemic.

The group representing Canada’s mortgage brokerages, lenders, insurers and industry service providers was the next most active organization in the federal lobbying arena in February, filing 52 reports during that span.

A spokesperson for Mortgage Professionals Canada said the group’s major lobbying asks were setting the mortgage stress test at 0.75 per cent above the contract rate, exempting mortgage holders from the stress test who have “completed and met the obligations for a minimum of five years of their original amortization period” and providing first-time homebuyers access to 30-year mortgages.

Finance Canada in early February announced that the minimum qualifying rate for insured mortgages for the stress test will be changed to the greater of the borrower’s contract rate or the weekly median five-year fixed insured mortgage rate from mortgage insurance applications, plus two additional percentage points.

This meant that the stress test will be based on the actual mortgage costs rather than the advertised rates.

In doing so, the department heeded a call from the mortgage and residential construction industries to loosen the terms of the test, which they blamed for squeezing out otherwise qualified buyers. However, both industries say more must be done to lessen the blow from the stress test, and have repeatedly asked Ottawa to lower the rate even further.

The call for a 30-year insured mortgage has also been a frequent ask of both groups, though the Trudeau Liberals did not campaign on making the change in the last election campaign, while the Conservatives and New Democrats did.

In an interview Tuesday, Mortgage Professionals Canada president and CEO Paul Taylor said the group’s requests last month were based on the “economic environment” of the time and largely focused on making a “few changes to underwriting guidelines to try to promote as much as possible homeownership for young and up-and-coming middle class Canadians.”

But, amid the COVID-19 outbreak, Taylor said his group, much like the federal government, is shifting its focus to trying to get people back to work and to ensure Canadians “can afford” monthly mortgage or rent payments.

“I’m trying to assist our members [right now]. The lenders themselves have got an awful lot of support mechanisms through the federal government…and the individual practitioners that are brokers also probably are going to avail of the income continuation programs and such. So that’s really what we’re doing today,” he said, referencing government support programs for Canadians put out of work by the COVID-19-induced economic outbreak.

READ MORE: Residential construction lobby welcomes stress test changes but calls for further action

Taylor credited the Liberal government for being “really approachable” to stakeholders like his association, calling it a “very good working environment” for advocates.

The Canadian Horticultural Council was the third most active lobbying group last month, filing 38 reports.