As Treasury Board President, Toews was responsible for overseeing the "Federal Accountability Act", which was passed into law in 2006. In January 2008, he introduced a Lobbying Act to replace Canada's Lobbyists Registration Act. The new Act created a category of senior public officials called "designated public office holders", whose interactions with lobbyists would need to be reported. It also created a Commissioner of Lobbying (to replace the Registrar of Lobbyists), and increased penalties for violations. The coordinator of the group Democracy Watch was strongly critical of the changes, noting that the new rules only covered "oral and arranged communication" between ministers and government officials while exempting written correspondence and chance encounters. After the Act officially became law in July 2008, it was discovered that some arranged meetings between ministers, government officials and lobbyists' clients would not have to be reported at all, if the lobbyist who arranged the meeting was not actually present. Lobbyists were not required to report such meetings, and the clients would only be required to do so if they were themselves registered under the act.