This article details the approach we have been taking at Cannabis At Work to engage with our Member of Parliament and be engaged advocates for the future of the cannabis industry.
Show Up and Engage
My colleague Jeffrey Ord had the opportunity to attend the first Grass on The Hill event in Summer 2022. This was a catalyst for our own advocacy work as we were very impressed with C3’s government relations training and access to elected officials. During this event, Jeff and other cannabis industry members met with elected officials in Ottawa and spoke about the challenges facing our sector.
Advocacy work is about relationship building and continuity over time. It takes time to build any relationship over multiple interactions. Your relationship with your MP will be no different. Attending the C3 event was our first step to relationship building, and coincidentally, our MP was in attendance at the Grass on The Hill meetings. This created a great opportunity for us to follow up and establish continuity.
Preparation and Intelligence Building
We decided that it was our responsibility to continue to engage in advocacy work on behalf of the industry and make sure that we were doing our part. We believe that engaging with your MP is the MINIMUM that we ALL should be doing to effect change that is urgently needed.
If you don’t know who your MP is, it is very simple to get the answer. Just Google it.
Once we identified our MP, Patrick Weiler, we reached out to his office via email. We introduced ourselves, stated who we were and what we wanted to talk about, and asked for a meeting. We received a response within 5 calendar days and set up a Zoom meeting.
Advocacy Execution
Next, we prepared what we wanted to address in the meeting, which was 30 minutes in length. Here was our rough outline for the meeting:
Open and establish continuity. Jeff reminded our MP that they had met at Grass on The Hill and introduced me as the Founder/CEO of Cannabis At Work, a constituent who lives and operates a business from his riding.
We gave a brief explanation of the work we do at Cannabis At Work as leaders in cannabis industry job recruitment and placement, as well as our cannabis industry compensation survey.
We spoke about our concerns for the viability of the industry and used excise tax as one example to illustrate the financial troubles and cash flow issues that are rife throughout the industry. We spoke to our own challenges of collecting on accounts receivable as an example of how these issues affect all businesses in the industry, including ours in his riding.
We also spoke about the data that we have relative to jobs, salaries, and economic development. We asked for input on what data we could provide that would be valuable to him in terms of understanding the economic impact of the cannabis sector in his riding and allow him to have influential conversations with his colleagues about the industry. We agreed on some data points that would be of interest to him,and established that we would compile the information and get back to him—a great reason to follow up and continue to build the relationship.
We also informed him of the upcoming Grass on The Hill event in Ottawa on Oct 17 & 18, 2022. We requested another meeting during our time in Ottawa and invited him to the event. This is another opportunity to build the relationship and keep the dialogue flowing.
YOUR CALL TO ACTION: Call your MP and ask for a meeting.
If you don’t know what to speak to your MP about, C3 has outlined 5 Big Asks, and I expect one or more of these will resonate with your challenges in the industry. These can be used as a starting point. You can combine one of C3’s asks with your own to build a narrative. If you have a store or run a facility, you can also invite your MP for a tour.
In a Meeting with an MP, What Should I Be Saying? (from the C3 SOSCannabis Advocacy Webinar)
Share your perspective. How have the following affected you as an owner? For example, high excise taxes, high fees & supply chain failures, and the illicit market.
Ask their perspective: Help me understand your government’s position on this. What are the next steps to save this sector?
Provide constructive solutions: How could the government help you and the sector?
Advocacy works. Silence is not a strategy.
I’d be happy to share more about the approach we have taken at Cannabis At Work - feel free to DM me.
See you soon, Ottawa.
