Maritime Football Limited partner Anthony LeBlanc, right, and CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie during a press conference in Halifax on Wednesday. Zane Woodford/StarMetro

The group looking to bring a CFL team to Halifax is seeking federal funding for a new stadium.

Three consultants from Ottawa’s Summa Strategies, including vice-chair and political pundit Tim Powers, registered last week to lobby federally on behalf of Maritime Football Partnership Limited, headed up by former Arizona Coyotes owners Anthony LeBlanc and Gary Drummond, and AMJ Campbell Van Lines president and CEO Bruce Bowser.

David Wallace of Halifax law firm McInnes Cooper is also registered to lobby to seek an evaluation of the team proposal and partnerships with federal, provincial and municipal governments.

The team, to be known as the Atlantic Schooners, is looking to begin play in 2021. After the announcement last fall, the group said it had changed its name to Schooners Sports and Entertainment (SSE), though it was referred to in the lobbyist registry by the original name.

According to media reports, SSE wants to see a 24,000-seat $130-million stadium built in Shannon Park in Dartmouth, located on the eastern shore of the Halifax Harbour. The group said it would be used for other purposes besides professional football, such as concerts and high school sports. SEE is promising to release more details about the proposed stadium to Halifax regional council later this month, reports CTV Atlantic.

Council has already ordered municipal staff to complete a review of the business case for the stadium. CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie has said that SSE has committed about $60 million toward bringing the team to Halifax, according to 3DownNation.com. In late December, SSE said it had sold more than 6,000 season ticket deposits.

When reached for comment, LeBlanc said in an email that the registrations “speak for themselves” and SSE was “happy to be working with Summa Strategies as we look to bring a CFL expansion franchise to Atlantic Canada.”

In their identical registrations, Powers and Summa colleagues Kristin Wilton and Robin MacLachlan, a notable NDP pundit, say they are targeting in their lobbying efforts MPs, Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, Canadian Heritage, Health Canada, Infrastructure Canada, Public Services and Procurement Canada and the Prime Minister’s Office.

Wallace is registered to focus on Infrastructure Canada and the Intergovernmental Affairs Secretariat.

Last week’s updates

There were 64 new registrations filed with the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying last week, with the federal budget set to be tabled on Tuesday.

The aforementioned Maritime Football Partnership Ltd. led the way in most mentions, with four lobbyists from two companies registering to lobby on its behalf. Tied for second with two registrations each: One Feather (Rothwell Group), Compass Minerals International (Willms & Shier Environmental Lawyers), Equal Voice (Impact Public Affairs), Printers Plus (Edelman) and Stradigi (Edelman).

By lobbyist, Darcy Walsh won the week with six new registrations. Jeremy Wittet of Edelman and Kait LaForce of Ensight each had three followed by a group at two each: Kristin Wilton (Summa), Kyle Larkin and Madison Simmons (Impact Public Affairs) and Stephen Daffron. By government relations company, Edelman had 11 new registrations last week, Impact Public Affairs had eight and Summa Strategies had four.

The highlights:

In recent agriculture/trade registrations:

The same week Richardson International Ltd. had canola shipments blocked by China, Tyler Bjornson from T. Bjornson & Associates Consulting Inc. registered on behalf of the company to arrange meetings with stakeholders about China and bilateral trade issues.

The Canadian Federation of Agriculture registered board member Lisa Ashworth, a dairy farmer from New Brunswick.

Madison Simmons of Impact Public Affairs registered for the Canadian Finance and Leasing Association to lobby for a parliamentary review of the mandate of Farm Credit Canada.

The Dairy Farmers of Ontario registered board member Mark Hamel.

Kait LaForce of Ensight Canada registered for the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute to arrange meetings about CAPI’s research in the agri-food sector. Last year, the institute received $5,000 from the Ontario government.

Greek Mountain Cheese has asked Christiane Busque of Gestion Christiane Busque to lobby on its behalf for funding from the Dairy Processing Investment Fund. Greek Mountain is a subsidiary of a New Jersey based company.

Paul Conlin of Conlin Bedard LLP has registered for Central Wire Industries Ltd. to lobby Finance Canada on its behalf about “Canada’s safeguard measure against steel products.”

In recent arts, culture and copyright registrations:

Felix Wong of Public Affairs Advisors is now lobbying for Amazon Corporate LLC about the ongoing Copyright Act review.

In recent energy, environment and climate registrations:

Evan Legate of Longview Communications has registered to lobby for Total E+P Canada Ltd. on C-69, the bill that changes environmental assessment process for resource projects.

Gatlin Smeijers and John Georgakopoulos of Willms & Shier Environmental Lawyers LLP registered to lobby for Compass Minerals International Inc. about voluntary participation and the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act.

Tidewater Midstream and Infrastructure wants financial support to build rail capacity to move Alberta oil. They hired Conal Slobodin of StrategyCorp to lobby on their behalf.

In recent health registrations:

Darrick Araneda of Stosic & Associates is now registered for Allergan Inc. to talk to Health Canada about “a potential drug shortage” but doesn’t name the drug in question. Allergan makes Botox and lots of other generic drugs.

The Northern Ontario School of Medicine, run jointly by Laurentian and Lakehead universities, has tapped Daniel Kelter and Nancy Cruz from the Capital Hill Group with lobbying the federal government on its behalf.

Kristin Wilton of Summa has also registered to lobby for the Paramedic Association of Canada to arrange meetings about community paramedicine, paramedic mental health and Heavy Urban Search and Rescue.

Alain Pilon and Leo Duguay from The Rothwell Group have registered to lobby for One Feather about electronic renewal of Indian status cards and electronic voting and the First Nations Elections Act.

Of note:

SSi Micro has tapped Kyle Larkin of Impact Public Affairs to lobby on their behalf for funding to help build communications infrastructure in the north.

David Angus of the Capital Hill Group has registered to lobby on behalf of Spark Innovation Educational Centre Inc. to help them find government funding. Spark Innovation is a Niagara Falls-based technology incubator.

Communications reports

After many quiet weeks, everybody filed their reports last week, which are due on the 15th of the following month. There were 2,505 reports to sift through over that span, the overwhelming majority are for communications that took place in February. There is a handful dating from 2018, a few from January and another 60-plus from March.

SNC-Lavalin reported eight communications dating from Feb. 4, 7, and 27.. They were all by in-house staff.

The company lobbied Liberal MPs Paul Lefebvre, Kim Rudd and David [sic] Maloney (Maloney is identified in the registry as an MP but it’s probably a typo and supposed to be Liberal MP James Maloney); Janice Charette, Canadian High Commissioner to the U.K. and former clerk of the Privy Council; Shawn Tupper, associate deputy minister at Natural Resources and Paul Halucha, the assistant secretary to the Cabinet who works in the Privy Council Office (PCO).

None of the MPs lobbied sit on the House justice committee that is probing the controversy the company is implicated in.

Other newsworthy client organizations include Facebook with five communications to PCO about elections; six communications for Google to Canadian Heritage, the Prime Minister’s Office and PCO about broadcasting, science and technology and elections. Two Amazon entities recorded 14 communications.

Most active client organizations, based on last week’s filings:

Canadian Federation of Students by in-house staff, 73

The Mining Association of Canada by in-house staff, 47

The University of British Columbia by in-house staff, 45

Canadian Natural Resources Ltd by in-house staff, 45

Dairy Farmers of Ontario by in-house staff and paid lobbyist, 44

Telesat Canada by in-house staff and paid lobbyist, 40

Davie Canada Yard, by in-house staff and paid lobbyists, 35

Air Canada by in-house staff, 34

Most active paid lobbyists:

Paul Moen for three clients, 20

Martin-Pierre Pelletier for two clients, 17

Naresh Raghubeer, for one client, 17

Steve Masnyk for one client, 17

David Angus, for 12 clients, 17

Will Adams for three clients, 16

James Anderson for three clients, 14

Christopher Vivone, for two clients, 14

Andrew Steele for five clients, 13

Sean Casey, for three clients, 13

Most lobbied public office-holders:

Justin To, director of policy to Minister of Finance, 25

Ben Chin, chief of staff to Minister of Finance, 24

Clare Demerse, senior policy advisor to Minister of Environment, 23

David McFarlane, policy director to Minister of ISED, 22

Paul Halucha, formerly ADM at Finance, now assistant secretary to the Cabinet, 19

Ian Foucher, deputy director policy in the financial sector to the Minister of Finance, 15

Mikaela McQuade, senior policy advisor to Minister of Environment, 15

Celine Caira, policy advisor to Minister of ISED, 14

Most lobbied government institutions:

House of Commons, 793

ISED, 240

Finance, 179

Senate, 174

Global Affairs, 130

Environment and Climate Change Canada, 100

Most lobbied subjects, based on the first two subjects listed on each filing:

International Trade, 451

Economic Development, 345

Environment, 321

Health, 314

Agriculture, 273

Energy, 266

Industry, 248

Education, 215

Taxation and Finance, 205

with files from Kristen Smith