Andrew Mayeda and Jack Aubry, The Ottawa Citizen, 21/1/2008

"Today it's the same as ... then, more or less with the same people, to fight for big money."

Karlheinz Schreiber

(Dec. 10 testimony before Commons ethics committee)

When Taser International faced an RCMP review on the use of Tasers in November, the Arizona-based company turned to one of Canada's most well-connected lobbyists for advice.

Before becoming a lobbyist at Hill and Knowlton, Ken Boessenkool was a close adviser to Stephen Harper during the 2004 and 2006 elections.

On Nov. 28, amid the fallout over the death of Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver International Airport, Mr. Boes-senkool registered to lobby the federal government for Taser. A few weeks later, the RCMP said it would restrict its use of Tasers, but not as much as the force's watchdog had recommended.

Did the hiring of a plugged-in lobbyist make a difference? Neither Taser nor Mr. Boes-senkool would comment.

Taser is hardly alone. Dozens of blue-chip companies have hired outside lobbyists to represent them, including Royal Bank of Canada, Bell Canada Enterprises, Lockheed Martin, Pfizer and mining giant CVRD Inco.

It's not just large corporations that hire lobbyists. Numerous charities, non-governmental organizations and other groups retain their services, including the Heart and Stroke Foundation, Environmental Defence and the Assembly of First Nations.

Lobbyists seldom come cheap. According to industry insiders, they typically charge monthly retainers of $3,000 to $10,000, or hourly rates of $150 to $500.

Despite the Harper government's introduction of tougher rules on lobbying, the profession continues to thrive. As Parliament Hill once again turns its attention to former prime minister Brian Mulroney's dealings with German lobbyist Karlheinz Schreiber, some argue the role of lobbyists as door openers is alive and well.

But industry insiders insist the reality is far more complex and, in many cases, more mundane, than the picture painted by the profession's harshest critics. They say modern-day lobbyists are more like mapmakers than gatekeepers, helping their clients navigate the maze of departments and agencies within the federal government. They argue that a series of legislative reforms started during the Mulroney era has made them more accountable.

Since 1989, when lobbyists were first required by law to register with the federal government, their number has nearly doubled to 4,971 from 2,575. Most registered individuals are "in-house" lobbyists, meaning they work for the company or organization on whose behalf they lobby. Less than one in five works for outside lobbying firms such as Hill and Knowlton or Earnscliffe Strategy, a category known as "consultant" lobbyists.

Insiders partly attribute the increase in lobbyists to a tightening of registration requirements in recent years. Since 2005, for example, corporations have had to register all employees who devote a "significant" part of their time to lobbying.

"Certainly, there has been growth," said Hugh Scott, president of the Government Relations Institute of Canada, which represents registered lobbyists. The institute's membership ranks have quadrupled from roughly 50 when it was founded in 1994 to more than 200 today.

"Our membership, in the face of new legislation and regulations, is certainly growing. I don't know what the number will be at the end of the year, but it will certainly be more than it is today."

Big corporations and industry associations are among the most well-represented players.

"A lot of lobbying is very commercially oriented -- getting a product on a shelf quickly, protecting a patent from competition," said John Chenier, editor of the Lobby Monitor.

Individual companies tend to lobby on specific contracts or regulatory changes that would benefit them directly, while industry associations usually target broader "macro-policy" issues, he added.

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce, for instance, begins lobbying the Department of Finance in the fall on what it would like to see in the spring budget, and will regularly weigh in on issues that affect the competitiveness of Canadian industry.

"It is a year-round process, essentially," said chamber president Perrin Beatty, a former cabinet minister under Joe Clark and Mr. Mulroney. "We argue our case on them in front of a wide variety of fora throughout the year."

Amid this full-court press by industry, individuals who keep their government contacts fresh and track the latest "intelligence" on the Hill become valuable assets, notes Mr. Chenier.

"A lot of lobbying is sort of keeping your car in tune. In other words, you build contacts and you're constantly trying to maintain your access to decision-makers," he said. "Lobbyists spend a lot of time and money getting to know these people and getting to be known by them."

But some observers, including many consultant lobbyists themselves, downplay the ability of lobbyists to bend the ear of public officeholders.

"Schreiber is talking in tongues if he actually thinks lobbying today is about access. If anybody has hired a lobbyist so he can provide access, my first advice would be to fire him," said Tim Powers, a high-profile lobbyist at Summa Strategies who regularly appears on television as a Conservative pundit.

The media's obsession with ranking lobbyist "heavy-hitters," and the desire of some lobbyists to cultivate that image, exaggerates their actual influence, said Sean Moore, a former lobbyist with law firm Gowling Lafleur Henderson.

"Some people in this business are into nothing more than access mongering, leaving the impression that because they used to work for someone, there's some particular magic that goes on."

Meanwhile, some experts say episodes such as the Mulroney-Schreiber affair have overshadowed the fact that lobbying is a legitimate -- even fundamentally democratic -- activity that has been a fixture of the Canadian political landscape since the late 19th century.

"It is really important not to overemphasize the unsavoury aspects. We need lobbyists. The complexities of government are so extensive these days that your ordinary citizen and many, many businesses just can't afford to spend the time and effort to unravel the process," said Paul Pross, professor emeritus at Dalhousie University and one of the few academic experts in Canada on the lobbying industry. "Lobbying is an ancient craft. Whenever you've got power, you have interests that need to be represented to power. That's the role of the lobbyist: to make that representation."