Grinberg Aaron, Vallance Kate, Farkouh Elizabeth K, Giesbrecht Norman, Wettlaufer Ashley, Naimi Timothy S
Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research, University of Victoria, 2300 McKenzie Ave., Room 273, Victoria, BC, Canada V8P 5C2.
Reed College, 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd., Portland, OR 97202, United States.
Health Promot Int. 2025 Jul 1;40(4). doi: 10.1093/heapro/daaf141.
Although alcohol is a leading cause of health and social harms in Canada, policies directed at alleviating the public health burden created by alcohol are rarely adopted and often reversed. This study analyses alcohol-related policy lobbying activity to better understand how lobbying might impact policy development in Canada. This was deemed not human subjects research. A cross-sectional analysis was conducted using data from the federal Canadian Registry of Lobbyists to characterize the frequency and nature of alcohol industry and public health lobbying activities between May 2022 and May 2023. In this period, there was substantially more lobbying activity by alcohol industry representatives compared to public health stakeholders. Over three-quarters of lobby groups represented alcohol industry organizations (n = 13) compared to public health organizations (n = 4), with industry recording a majority of registered lobbyists (81.3%), meetings reported (66.2%), and number of officials lobbied (71.2%). Alcohol industry organizations predominantly lobbied bureaucrats in policy making/governance roles (54.2% of industry meetings), while public health stakeholders mainly lobbied legislators (60.4% of public health meetings). The alcohol industry's dominance in federal lobbying activities may enable corporate influence over alcohol policy development and undermine public health approaches. The nature of lobbying in Canada has international implications for the regulation of a product that is an important commercial determinant of health, showing the potential role lobbying may play in weakening alcohol regulation.
尽管在加拿大，酒精是导致健康和社会危害的主要原因之一，但旨在减轻酒精造成的公共卫生负担的政策却很少被采纳，而且常常被推翻。本研究分析了与酒精相关的政策游说活动，以更好地了解游说可能如何影响加拿大的政策制定。这项研究被认定不属于人体研究。利用加拿大联邦游说者登记处的数据进行了横断面分析，以描述2022年5月至2023年5月期间酒精行业和公共卫生游说活动的频率和性质。在此期间，与公共卫生利益相关者相比，酒精行业代表的游说活动要多得多。超过四分之三的游说团体代表酒精行业组织（n = 13），而代表公共卫生组织的只有（n = 4），行业记录显示注册游说者占多数（81.3%），报告的会议占（66.2%），被游说的官员数量占（71.2%）。酒精行业组织主要游说担任政策制定/治理角色的官僚（占行业会议的54.2%），而公共卫生利益相关者主要游说立法者（占公共卫生会议的60.4%）。酒精行业在联邦游说活动中的主导地位可能使企业能够影响酒精政策的制定，并破坏公共卫生措施。加拿大游说活动的性质对一种作为健康重要商业决定因素的产品的监管具有国际影响，表明游说可能在削弱酒精监管方面发挥潜在作用。
