Welcome to the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying's Online Assistance. This tutorial has been designed as part of the education and outreach efforts of the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying. It gives a step-by-step description for entering data to create the monthly reports of communication with designated public office holders also known as DPOHs.

The Lobbying Act requires that monthly communication reports be filed no later than 15 days after the end of every month. Registrants need to have an active registration or have certified and submitted a disclosure before they can file monthly reports with the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying.

To illustrate, we will use the registration for the "Textile Producers Union / Union des producteurs de textile".

On the Registration Dashboard, from the "Current activities" tab, choose the registration for which a monthly communication return must be filed.

Then, click the "Add New" link in the "Communication Reports" section.

Before entering the data concerning the monthly report for communication with a designated public office holder, you must confirm that the data provided in the underlying registration is complete and accurate. To do this, scroll through the registration to view it.

If the registration needs to be updated, click the "Return to Registrant Dashboard" link at the bottom left of the page. If the registration is accurate, click the "Continue" button at the bottom right of the page.

You are brought to the "Communication Date" page. To ensure that the person you have communicated with holds a designated position, click on "Information about Designated Public Offices Held". You will find a listing of the positions that have been identified as being "Designated" in the Lobbying Act and Regulations.

Using the calendar tool, enter the date on which the communication took place. In our tutorial, the communication was held on March 2nd, 2011.

Then click the "Save and Continue" button to go to the next step.

You are brought to the "Communication Report" page. Enter the names of all designated public office holders with whom the communication took place, and the subject matter of the communication. From this page you can also verify and correct the communication date. To do this, click the "Edit" link in the first section of the screen just above the "List of Designated Public Office Holders Associated with the Communication." Note that mandatory fields are marked with an asterisk (*).

Information concerning Designated Public Office Holders (DPOHs) must be entered in the section entitled "List of Designated Public Office Holders Associated with the Communication". If several DPOHs were associated with the communication, you must use the "Add to List" button after all the information required for each DPOH has been provided.

In our tutorial, we met with two designated public office holders: Jacques Simon, Deputy Minister of Industry Canada and Marie-Camille Villeneuve, President of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency.

Enter the first and last name, position title, branch or unit and the name of the government institution of the first DPOH and click the "Add to List" button. Note that a list is created at the bottom of this section and that you should click the "Top of Form" link to add a new DPOH. Repeat this step for each DPOH associated with the communication.

You must then specify the subject matter of the communication. The available list contains the subject matters that are already listed in the registration. The "International Trade" subject matter is selected.

If the subject matter of your communication is not in the "Subject Matter from Associated Registration" list, you will need to add it by clicking the "View Additional Subject Matters" button.

In our tutorial, issues related to "labour" were also discussed. We should therefore click the "View Additional Subject Matters" button.

On the "Add New Subject Matter" page, we can choose one or more subject matters from the pre-defined list.

For our tutorial, "Labour", which is on the pre-defined list, is chosen. Next, click the "Add to List" button. Since this is the only edit to make, return to the "Communication Report" by clicking the "Save" button.

You will see this subject matter appear in a new section called "New Subject Matter of the Communication not in Registration" at the bottom of the page. This means that you will need to update the underlying registration as soon as possible to enter the details related to the new subject matter.

Since all the required information is entered, we can go to the next step to certify this information by clicking the "Save and Continue" button.

On the "Certify Communication Report" page, if you notice any errors, you can edit the information entered by clicking the "Edit" button.

If all the information entered is correct, you can certify. In this step, you confirm that the information entered is true to the best of your knowledge. Check the corresponding box to confirm this statement.

You can then choose publish the communication report immediately in the Registry of Lobbyists, or tell the system to wait and publish it automatically on the due date. For our tutorial, we will choose to publish it now.

Enter your username and password, then click the "Certify" button.

Your communication report has now been submitted and a confirmation page is shown. We recommend that you keep a copy for your file.

To view your monthly communication reports, click on the "View" link. Then select the month that corresponds to the report that you want to see and click on the "View" button. Note that on this page you can view, amend or cancel your monthly communication reports.

This concludes the tutorial.

If you have any comments or questions, please, contact us by phone at 613-957-2760 or by e-mail at QuestionsLobbying@ocl-cal.gc.ca. You can also visit our website at www.ocl-cal.gc.ca.