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“We want to go back and have some conversations as to what a reasonable number is,” added Morgan, who declined to commit to introducing amendments to the three-year-old Lobbyists Act in 2019.

Barclay said while he would still prefer the government to completely eliminate any threshold, a significant reduction, to around 30 hours, would nevertheless constitute a “huge improvement” to the legislation.

Photo by Troy Fleece / Regina Leader-Post

Saskatchewan’s Lobbyists Act defines lobbying as any attempt to influence legislation, regulations, programs, policy or procurement, as well as attempts to arrange meetings between “public office holders” and third parties.

Under the act, third-party lobbyists hired to advance a cause must register and disclose their work in a public database. Corporate executives, however, must only do so after lobbying for more than 100 hours per year.

According to Morgan, it is common for cabinet ministers — lobbyists’ most frequent targets — to have “casual conversations” that might veer into political matters but not necessarily constitute lobbying.

“I don’t want to put everybody in the position of having to define every conversation that they have. So I think there’s got to be a common-sense balance, and I think we’ll get there,” he said.

Asked about the opinion of Barclay and others that all lobbying should be transparent, Morgan said, “I agree with where they’re coming from but I’m just not there. There has to be an element of practicality.”