'Cozy relationship' or business as usual? Firm's emails to mayor's office become election fodder

'Cozy relationship' or business as usual? Firm's emails to mayor's office become election fodder

Mayoral candidate Alex Lawson files formal complaint, government relations firm dubs it 'spurious'

Mayoral candidate alleges unregistered lobbying of Mark Sutcliffe and staff

Ottawa’s integrity commissioner is getting pulled into the municipal election campaign for the second time in weeks after a mayoral candidate asked for an investigation into what he calls unregistered lobbying of Mayor Mark Sutcliffe and his staff by a local firm.

On Thursday, Alex Lawson filed a complaint with the office of lobbyist registrar Karen Shepherd, who is also council’s integrity commissioner.

He alleges that public affairs and communications firm Syntax Strategic breached the lobbyist registry bylaw and the lobbyist code of conduct, including through what he described as a failure to properly register its activities.

But the company pushed back, saying it's committed to complying with all the rules, while the mayor’s office said most of the communications in question weren’t lobbying at all.

"There’s clearly a misunderstanding of what constitutes lobbying," said Mathieu Gravel, the mayor’s chief of staff.

Syntax questioned the pre-election timing of Lawson’s complaint, which the company said it has not yet seen and therefore cannot review and assess.

"The obvious shopping of this spurious action to media by a political campaign speaks volumes," said an email from Syntax chief operating officer Jennifer Madigan on behalf of the company, calling it "a deliberate and orchestrated attempt by political actors to smear Syntax’s reputation and impugn the character of its principals and team members."

Lawson’s complaint focuses on emails between Syntax Strategic and the mayor’s office from the time Sutcliffe took office in November 2022 until April 2026. They attempt to co-ordinate lunches and meetings, request the mayor’s attendance at client events, and on at least one occasion provide Sutcliffe with talking points for his remarks.

The Lawson campaign got the communications through a municipal freedom of information request, posted about them in a social media video and flagged them to CBC, which verified them by independently obtaining the same material from the city’s access to information and privacy office.

The complaint comes less than two weeks after Horizon Ottawa, a left-leaning advocacy group, filed a complaint asking Shepherd to investigate the mayor’s advertising practices. Sutcliffe has defended his city-funded community newspaper ads as entirely normal and noted that the city clerk found they comply with the rules.

Syntax Strategic has represented clients who do extensive business with the city, including the Greater Ottawa Home Builders’ Association, developers Taggart Group and several companies that have worked on Ottawa’s O-Train project.

Syntax founder and CEO Jennifer Stewart has had previous links with Sutcliffe, including working on his communications team during his successful 2022 municipal election run, during which she was named as one of his many honorary campaign co-chairs.

Lawson previously worked as a lobbyist for the firm Political Intelligence Corp. and has an active registration to lobby the city on construction issues — a point Syntax said made his allegations "curious."

But Lawson argued that the emails point to an ongoing "cozy relationship" between Sutcliffe and Syntax.

The freedom of information documents show Syntax employees emailed senior mayor’s office staff on a wide range of topics, from a battery energy storage project to a Carp Village harvest supper and a school visit to the mayor’s office.

While Syntax staff registered some of the meetings and communications caught up in the request — particularly those on substantive issues like battery energy storage — Lawson’s campaign zeroed in on others that left no traces in the lobbyist registry.

For example, Syntax employee Mackenzie Houston sent emails in March and April inviting Sutcliffe to the opening of the Alt Hotel near the Ottawa International Airport on April 23, then provided "key messages" for his speech following a request from mayor’s office staff.

The emails also mentioned a discussion between Stewart and the mayor’s spokesperson, Tahera Mufti, on the hotel launch event. Houston is not registered as a lobbyist with the city, while Stewart is not registered to lobby on behalf of Alt Hotels or its owner Germain Hotels, and did not register those specific communications.

Lawson’s complaint called those "substantive communications" which in his view meet the definition of lobbying and should have been registered within 15 days. Lawson alleges they "aimed at securing an action" from Sutcliffe and "produced a tangible benefit at a commercial launch."

The city’s lobbyist registry bylaw defines lobbying as "any communication with a public office holder by an individual who is paid or who represents a business or financial interest with the goal of trying to influence any legislative action," including bylaws, motions or decisions.

It is unclear what legislative action could be at stake in the hotel communications. Gravel said they don’t meet the bar, since the hotel was already approved and built at the time.

For that reason, he said "there’s no lobbying taking place" in the hotel emails.

He also noted that it's not incumbent on the mayor or his staff to ensure proper registration, but on the lobbyists themselves.

CBC provided Syntax with details of the substance of the complaint to seek a response. In its statement, the company said it "operates with the utmost professionalism and is committed to complying with all applicable laws, regulations and professional obligations governing our work."

"The email in question was simply an invitation extended by a Syntax team member on behalf of the client and a response to a request for some additional information from the mayor's office," the Syntax statement said.

Asked whether it or similar invitations constituted lobbying, Madigan declined further comment.

"Respectfully, a complaint that is shared with the media is suspect and likely designed to smear Syntax’s reputation," her email said. "All legal action will be considered."

Gravel called it "standard practice" to ask for speaking points when the mayor is invited to an event.

"We ask organizers to provide bullets and interesting tidbits about themselves as a starting point for the speech," he said in a text message.

Presented with those arguments, Lawson’s campaign manager Emrys Graefe sent CBC a message attributed to the candidate.

"If getting the mayor to show up at your client’s event and deliver a speech you wrote doesn’t count as lobbying then the rules need to change," Lawson was quoted as saying.

"The people of Ottawa deserve to know what kind of cozy relationship Sutcliffe has with his lobbyist friends, and those friends need to follow the rules," he added.

Graefe is a cofounder of Political Intelligence, though the company's website says he is currently on a leave of absence.

Lawson also makes allegations about a more substantive issue: the Capital Region Resource Recovery Centre landfill site, which the city bought this year.

His complaint says that then Syntax employee Jonelle Istead made an "incomplete return" to the lobbyist registry after sending an April 2025 email to Sutcliffe and Gravel. She asked to arrange a meeting with Taggart Miller Environmental Services, which was looking to sell the property.

The meeting took place on April 9. The mayor did not attend, though Gravel did. So did three other senior city staff members, and Lawson’s complaint says that Istead’s registration failed to mention them. It only mentions Gravel and Sutcliffe.

But Syntax’s statement provides a reason for that. Though Istead is listed as a “required attendee” on the April 9 meeting invitation, Madigan’s email said that no Syntax representatives actually attended that meeting.

Gravel noted that the meeting itself appears in a separate lobbyist registry entry, not from Syntax but from Taggart vice-president Michelle Taggart. That registration includes one of the missing staff members, general manager of public works Alain Gonthier, though not the other two.

The mayor’s office has previously disclosed both the email and the meeting to CBC.

Lawson’s complaint goes beyond allegations of unregistered lobbying. It also asks Shepherd to examine whether Syntax breached the lobbyist code of conduct by offering "hospitality and benefit" to the mayor and his staff.

It relies on a lengthy chain of emails and calendar invitations in 2025 looking to co-ordinate a lunch meeting between Stewart and Gravel at Fratelli restaurant in Kanata.

It also points to a calendar invitation Stewart accepted on Sept. 10 for "Lunch with Mayor & Syntax Strategic Team," as well as arrangements for a reception at La Terrasse restaurant downtown to celebrate Syntax’s 15th anniversary last June 17.

It asks the mayor’s office to demonstrate that city staff paid their own way at each of those events.

"The release package documents a sustained pattern of hospitality offered and accepted," the complaint said.

Madigan said that Stewart is out of the country and she can’t speak to her boss’s lunch schedule. Gravel said he did attend one lunch meeting with Stewart in January 2026, and that she paid for his pasta, which he said cost approximately $20.

"All rules were followed," he said. "We disclose anything that exceeds $100 annually from the same source."

He said that no city business was discussed at the meeting.

While a $100 disclosure threshold does apply for members of council, the lobbyist code of conduct restricts active lobbyists from offering any gift, hospitality or benefit to members of council or their staff — without indicating any monetary threshold.

Madigan did not directly respond to a follow-up question about whether and how the lunch meeting complied with that rule.

On June 17, 2025, Sutcliffe proclaimed Syntax Strategic Day in Ottawa. Lawson’s complaint cited that proclamation to make a broader point, arguing that the company put Sutcliffe in an actual or perceived conflict of interest given their past links, including during the 2022 campaign.

The Syntax statement to CBC noted that many organizations and businesses get similar proclamations, and Gravel said there was no preferential treatment for Stewart and Syntax.

The complaint remains at an early stage. Shepherd declined any comment on it, saying the investigation process is confidential.

Arthur White-Crummey is the municipal affairs reporter at CBC Ottawa. He grew up in Ottawa, spent years in Saskatchewan covering the courts, city hall and the provincial legislature, before moving back to his hometown. You can reach him at arthur.white-crummey@cbc.ca