October's Ottawa Lobbying Update #4
last month's key-issues and subject matters
Each month, Queen Street Analytics publishes four reports on the government relations landscape in Ottawa, analyzing noteworthy patterns across (#1) the most lobbying-active sectors and organizations, (#2) the most lobbied government institutions and public officials (DPOHs), (#3) the most active lobby-firms and lobbyist-consultants, and (#4) the most lobbied-on and discussed subjects-matters, keywords, and policy-issues. Our approach is not journalistic and we don’t report on anecdotes or on the news cycle. Instead, we use statistical and machine-learning enabled analytics to uncover patterns, trends, and opportunities, giving our subscribers an enhanced toolkit to navigate the government relations landscape.
This week, we focus on the subjects-matters, and (AI-determined) keywords that stood out in September’s lobbying communications.
The CliffsNotes version:
The most lobbied-on subject-matters in September included Economic Development, the Environment and Infrastructure, amongst others
Some of the biggest increases in focus compared to August were in the subject-matters of Infrastructure, International Trade and Budget
September’s most lobbied-on keywords (TFIDF themes) included the Environmental Protection Act, the Food Inspection Agency, the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act and Land Management Legislation, with the latter two gaining in prominence relative to August and July
At the sector-level, there were 17 new keyword-sector pairs, where a keyword was important in a sector’s lobbying for the first time. Among the most salient were the Zero Emissions Accountability Act and Canada Transportation Act for lobbying in the Wood and paper product manufacturing sector, and Appraisal Fees for lobbying by Professional organizations
At the institution-level, there were 16 first-time keyword-institution pairs. Among the most salient were Canadian Export Controls for lobbying of National Defence (DND) and Canada Grain Act Regulations for lobbying of the Senate of Canada
For a comparison, check out last month’s newsletter #4 here:
1. Last Month’s Noteworthy Subject Matter Trends
Exhibit 1 shows the top-25 subject-matters lobbied on in September (rank-ordered) with the count of communications (File_Sep) and their rank (Rank_Sep) in the last two columns. The exhibit also shows the August values for comparison (File_Aug and Rank_Aug). The most lobbied-on subject-matters in September were Economic Development, Environment, Industry and Infrastructure. The biggest increases in focus compared to August (comparing columns 5 and 3) were in the subject-matters of Infrastructure (rank 4 compared to 7), International Trade (rank 8 compared to 14) and Budget (9 compared to 15).
The subject-matters provided in government filings are interesting, but they are inherently limited in what they can tell us because they come from a pre-set canned list of just 54 options.
For this reason, we are more focused on the keywords (“TFIDF themes”) that LobbyIQ parses from the monthly lobby-filings with its AI-enabled algorithms. For a layman’s description of how these themes get parsed from text, see LobbyIQ’s FAQ section. We also posted a primer on this a while back:
2. Last Month’s Noteworthy TFIDF Themes in Lobbying
Exhibit 2 shows the (rank-ordered) keywords (TFIDF themes) that were central in September’s communications in at least three sectors or government institutions. The last column (tfidfSep) shows the combined number of sectors and institutions in which a keyword was central in September, with the previous two columns (tfidfJul and tfidfAug) providing a comparison to the previous two months.
Readers can already get the current keywords (TFIDF themes) for October on LobbyIQ’s dashboards, but the dominant October themes remain in flux until November 15th when all October communications will have been filed. Exhibit 3 shows an illustrative example of current TFIDF themes for August to October on LobbyIQ’s oil and gas sector-dashboard. Note that the document counts (in green) are still much lower for October (2023-10) than for September and August because the October filings are still sparse.
3. TFIDF Themes by Sector
In Exhibit 4, we isolate new sector-theme pairs, i.e. keywords that have become important in a sector’s communication filings for the first time. Columns 3, 4 and 5 respectively report a keyword’s TFIDF centrality score, the rank of this score in the considered sector-month, and the number of communications in which said keyword appeared. The centrality score is calculated by AI, and it can be high even with even just a single document-mention (as is the case in the top-two rows) so long as the keyword itself is highly unusual and central relative to the context of a sector’s usual filings.
There were 17 first-ever sector-keyword pairs, and among the most salient we see Appraisal Fees for Professional organizations, and the Zero Emissions Accountability Act and Canada Transportation Act for Wood and paper product manufacturing.
4. TFIDF Themes by Institution
In Exhibit 5, we isolate new institution-theme pairs, i.e. keywords that have become important in an institution’s communication filings for the first time. As in Exhibit 4, columns 3, 4 and 5 respectively report a keyword’s centrality score, the rank of this score in the considered institution-month, and the number of communications in which said keyword appeared.
There were 16 first-ever institution-keyword pairs; among the most salient we see Canadian Export Controls for National Defence (DND) and Canada Grain Act Regulations for the Senate of Canada.
Subscribers who want to take a more detailed dive into these data, can do so with a subscription to LobbyIQ.
Next week, we have a gap-week between the regular October and November cycles, which means we will do a special issue with a deep-dive into one of our reader-suggested topics.