End of 2017 saw Stingray, Birch Hill reinvigorate lobby efforts

Stingray Digital Group Inc. and Birch Hill Equity Partners ramped up their lobbying in December, with both submitting their first communications reports for the year in the last weeks of 2017. Birch Hill, an investment firm whose partners include Groupe Maskatel LP, which was acquired this month by BCE Inc., saw its first lobby activity in a year and a half, filing five communications reports with officials at Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED). Representatives reached out to with Parvinder Sachdeva, policy advisor at Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains’ office, as well as two staff members at the Innovation department’s Connecting Canadians branch, which deals with both the previous government’s Connecting Canadians program and the current Connect to Innovate initiative. Stingray’s December activity was also its only registered communication with government in the year. The five reports included communications with high-profile politicians and regulators, including CRTC chairman Ian Scott, vice-chairwoman of broadcasting Caroline Simard, and Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly. The company is registered to lobby Canadian Heritage and the CRTC, as well as Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions. It’s registered to lobby Heritage “with respect to broadcasting policies impacting independent broadcasters in Canada and how best to promote Canadian independent broadcasters abroad,” while its registration also says the company’s “lobbying activity aims to obtain a grant, contribution or other financial benefit to support the growth of Stingray Digital Group Inc.,” and that the financial help will ensure the company is able to keep its head office in Canada, that it will “continue to recruit and train employees in Quebec and throughout Canada, given that it may be more economical for such employees to be engaged elsewhere in the world” and that it can “continue to develop innovative proprietary technologies.” Neither company responded to questions about what prompted the renewed lobbying activity. Overall, there were 53 telecom-related communications reports, down from a busy November that saw 79 reports, but up from the previous December, which had 44 reports. Broadcast lobbying stood at 36 reports, down from 87 in November, though up from 12 the previous December. Rogers Communications Inc., Shaw Communications Inc. and Bell had roughly the same amount of lobbying activity, with seven reports for Rogers, and nine each for Shaw and Bell. Rogers, like Bell, Shaw and Telus Corp., communicated with Sachdeva. Rogers representatives also reached out to David Hurl, director of policy and parliamentary affairs at the public safety ministers’ office, NDP MP Matthew Dubé, Éric Dagenais, assistant deputy minister for innovation and MP Marco Mendicino, the parliamentary secretary to the justice minister. Shaw also contacted senator Peter Harder, Maxime Dea, policy advisor in the Prime Minister’s Office, and Innovation’s associate deputy minister David McGovern and assistant deputy minister Fiona Gilfillan, in addition to Conservative MPs Gord Brown and Stephanie Kusie, as well as Kelly Wilhelm, senior policy advisor at the heritage minister’s office. Bell also communicated with some of the same individuals, including Dubé, Dagenais, and Gilfillan, as well as NDP heritage critic Pierre Nantel, Conservative innovation critic Maxime Bernier and public safety's Hurl. Telus had a more low key month, with five reports that also saw it make contact with Bains and his chief of staff Gianluca Cairo, as well as Heritage’s Wilhelm. Quebecor Inc., meanwhile, had two broadcasting-related communications, with Joly and three of her staff, and a separate communication with her senior advisor Soraya Martinez. The Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) had one telecom-related report and five broadcast-related reports, with representatives communicating with the CRTC’s Scott and Simard, liberal MP Sean Casey, Nantel and staff at the Heritage Minister’s office, including chief of staff Leslie Church. The National Football League (NFL)’s Canadian division also reached out to Scott and two CRTC staff, broadcasting executive director Scott Hutton and the chairman’s chief of staff Amy Hanley. — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Ahmad Hathout atahathout@thewirereport.ca

End of 2017 saw Stingray, Birch Hill reinvigorate lobby efforts

Broadcast | January 17, 2018

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End of 2017 saw Stingray, Birch Hill reinvigorate lobby efforts

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