CCL Canada’s 2016 National Conference and Lobby Days

SCHEDULE STILL SUBJECT TO CHANGE – Last updated November 18, 2016.

CCL LOBBY PREP DAY
Saturday, November 26, 2016, noon to 5:30 pm
Venue:Ottawa City Hall, 110 Laurier Avenue W
Light snacks and refreshments provided. You can bring your own food too if you wish.
12:00 – 1:00 – register, receive lobby schedule, socialize (room Jean Pigott)
1:00 – 1:45 – welcome,  introductions and other fun things (room Jean Pigott)
1:45 – 3:00 – group start workshop* for new CCLers (Honeywell Room) and a workshop for CCL veterans (room Jean Pigott)
3:00 – 3:30  –  Break
3:30 – 5:00 – Saturday Keynote Speaker Rene Lertzmann* (room Jean Pigott)
5:00 – 5:30 – orienting to Parliament Hill, final instructions and Q&A for lobbying  (room Jean Pigott)

EDUCATIONAL DAY
Sunday, November 27, 2016, 9:30 am to 5:30 pm
Venue:Ottawa City Hall,  110 Laurier Avenue W, all in Jean Pigott except where indicated
Light snacks and refreshments provided. You can bring your own food too if you wish.
9:00 – 9:30 – pre-event quiet reflection – non-compulsory (Colonel By room).
9:30 – 10:00 – Sunday registration desk
10:00 – 10:30 – A CCL Welcome
10:30 – 11:00 – Opening Comments from Ottawa City Councillor David Chernushenko  (room Jean Pigott)
11:00 – 11:30 –  Unpacking Fossil Fuel Subsidies in Canada – Yanick Touchette, International Institute of Sustainable Development
11:30 -11:45 –  Hey North America, Let’s win the Clean Energy Race, Brian Ettling, CCL St Louis, Missouri, USA
11:45 -12:00 –  Climate Change is a Medical Emergency, Sanjiv Mathur, CCL Sudbury, Ontario, Canada
12:00 – 12:05   –   Closing Thoughts for the morning.
12:05 – 1:30 – Lunch on your own.
1:30 – 1:45  –  Afternoon opening comments from the Honourable Mary Polak*, Minister of the Environment for the province of British Columbia.
1:45  – 2:30 – Glen Hodgson Keynote Speaker, The Case for a Federal Carbon Tax
2:30 – 3:45 – Border Tax Adjustments Panel: Ross Astoria, David Robinson and Maria Panezi*
3:45 – 4:00  –  Break
4:00 – 4:30 – Update on what had just happened at COP 22 in Marrakech Morocco (November 7 – 18) with Joseph Robertson*
4:30 – Closing comments, group photo and lobbying groups meet to discuss plans. 
*These guest speakers will present from virtually.
Suggested: Grey Cup Party afterwards perhaps – informal and not mandatory

LOBBYING Day 1 and GROUP PHOTO
Monday, November 28, 2016, all day
Venue:Parliament Hill
NOTE THE NEW TIME FOR OUR GROUP PHOTO ON PARLIAMENT HILL:
Arrive at 2:15 at the Centennial Flame on Parliament Hill for a 2:30 SHARP GROUP PHOTO.

Registered guests at Marriott Residence can use the 2nd floor of the hotel as a meeting area or even your suites for pre-lobbying preparation. That is why we chose this venue. It near Parliament Hill.

EVENING RECEPTION
Monday, November 28, 2016
Venue:Marriott Residence Inn, 161 Laurier W, Sir Guy Room, 2nd Floor

LOBBYING Day 2
Tuesday, November 29, 2016, all day
Venue: Parliament Hill
Registered guests at Marriott Residence can use the 2nd floor of the hotel as a meeting area or even your suites for pre-lobbying preparation. That is why we chose this venue. It near Parliament Hill.

For those of you who would like to receive updates on Facebook, we have set up an event page .

Registration for the conference has been extended to Monday, November 21, but you are not guaranteed to get an official lobbying schedule. We will improvise at the conference and make it work.

Karelo is handling the registrations again:
http://www.karelo.com/register.php?BID=600&BT=10&Ev=16601

Thus billing on your credit card will show up as Karelo not Citizens’ Climate Lobby.

Registration for the four day conference and lobbying days is $100 and it includes light refreshments on the Saturday and Sunday, a reception on the Monday and some CCL swag.

Registration for Sunday only is free but you must register.

Confirmed Speakers:

Glen Hodgson, newly appointed Senior Fellow and former Vice President and Chief Economist at the Conference Board of Canada and member of Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission, will be CCL Canada’s Keynote Speaker on Economics on Sunday afternoon. Earlier this year, Glen Hodgson wrote an article called The Case for a Federal Carbon Tax which we liked.

Renee Lertzman, professor, thought leader, speaker and author of Environmental Melancholia: Psychoanalytic Dimensions of Engagement. She was our guest speaker at our 2016 June event. Her evidence-based presentation and workshop helped our volunteers bring emotional intelligence to tough communications surrounding carbon pricing. Thus, we wanted her back and were delighted when she accepted our invitation.

Confirmed Border Carbon Adjustment Panelists:

• Maria Panezi from the Centre of International Governance Innovation (CIGI) and author of Taxing Carbon Across Borders without Violating the WTO (2016)
• Ross Astoria, assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin and author of Design of an International Trade Law Compliant Carbon Border Tax Adjustment (2015)
• David Robinson, Laurentian University Economist, will share views on unilateral Border Carbon Adjustments.

Never lobbied before? Don’t worry, we have been lobbying for carbon fee and dividend for six years now in Canada. You will be officially trained on the Saturday with our proven methodology. By the end of the session on Saturday you will begin to feel comfortable. And by the end of the educational day on Sunday, you will be empowered to speak for millions. Everything is connected.

Canada potentially could lead the world out of the climate crisis and we just might be the change agents that helps catalyze the transformation the world so desperately needs.

We will  send registered attendees a series of short emails after November 11 to orient everyone to the weekend. One of the emails will include a package of  updated and most relevant “Laser Talks” with instructions.

At the conference, you are going to be hanging out with some of the most interesting and talented climate volunteers on the planet and we like to have fun. Getting out of our comfort zone is our modus operandi.

Canada is going to price carbon and most  of our MP’s will be relieved to know that there is someone in her/his riding that supports a national and rising price on carbon pollution.

We have one  over-arching rule: treat politicians with respect and admiration for their service.

Here are the key strategies we use.

IMPORTANT

• Photo ID is required to get into all buildings on Parliament Hill.
• Allow at least 15 minutes to get through the airport-like security on Parliament Hill.
• Don’t wear and bring anything that looks remotely political such as flags and CCL swag (Climate Lobby are trigger words it seems) because it may be put in storage while you lobby in the building.
• If your meeting is in Centre Block go through the “Business Door” on the left and not the “Tourist Door” on the right. We will review this at the conference.
• If by chance you get invited to the Parliamentary Dining Hall, men must wear a tie in the Dining Hall.  No Jeans allowed.

Map of Parliament Hill which will be included in your conference booklet

Over the next few weeks we will be posting updated resources in here.

•  Getting started on lobbying your MP: A Word document that gives suggested dialogue to use when you phone and then email your MP to book an appointment while we are lobbying in Ottawa. Please only book appointments with your MP. If you are brand new to Citizens’ Climate Lobby and do not have a connection with your local CCL group, check with us to make sure someone has not already started booking the appointment.
• Once you have secured an appointment send the following information to canada@citizensclimatelobby.org
  – The name of the MP, their Party and any special roles they may have in Parliament.
  – The day, date and time of the appointment
  – The location including the building and address and room number if possible
  – The staff contact person and their contact information
  – Who was the CCL scheduler
  – Names of constituents (even if they are not attending the conference)
  – Who you would like to have lobby with you (primarily constituents in the MP’s riding will get priority but other special circumstances may be considered. There are no guarantees)

• MP bio outline: Update or create a bio for your MP and send it to canada@citizensclimatelobby.org by Nov. 11.
• Lobbying Minutes Form – includes tips on how to take good notes and a big reminder to take pictures and send them to us
• Suggested Lobby Meeting Agenda – Ideas for how to conduct your meeting
• Our Legislative Proposal: Carbon Fee and Dividend in English and French – only two pages long
• We All Own the Air – July 2015 Paper by Dr. Lars Osberg (Dalhousie) of why Carbon Fee and Dividend makes sense for Canada and chock full of valuable data and information
• Check out the House of Commons Calendar to know when your MP will be in your riding to lobby.
• November 2015 Stanford University Infographic on how 100% renewable energy in Canada by 2050 is 100% possible
• One pager on the REMI report
• “Leave-behind-November-2016“.  A preliminary version was field tested October 12, 13 and 14 by CCLers when they lobbied their MPs and then it was edited extensively through many people in an organized process.  It was an incredible team effort.
• Laser Talks Everything is Connected
• CCL Canada Carbon Pricign Policy Guidelines 05-26-16

Suggested visuals to bring when lobbying

• The Five Ways to Price carbon – a great visual for orienting politicians unfamiliar with carbon pricing to the various solutions
• Carbon Fee and Dividend cartoon also available in French
• Cap and Trade cartoon also available in French
• Carbon dividend cheque: English and French 

The Final Lobbying Schedule

After registration closes on November 11,  the Lobbying Schedule Committee will meet to determine the lobbying schedule. Great care will go into balancing the following elements: putting constituents in the room, past lobbying participants, weighing the skills of the different people, giving everyone approximately the same number of appointments, considering the the lobby-lead requests and avoiding schedule conflicts.

That all being said, we have to be nimble. About 15-20% of lobbying meetings change at the last minute because we lobby mostly face-to-face. Thus, it is especially critical you do not change your lobbying schedule on  your own. Everyone will get their lobbying schedules by Saturday, November 26 at the conference.

Since 2010, CCL Canada has been lobbying parliamentarians for carbon fee and dividend. We have had 1333 letters to the editor, articles and opinion pieces published in newspapers by or about us. In 2016, across Canada, currently we have lobbied our federal MPs 111 times in face-to-face meetings for carbon fee and dividend and we have yet to have our national conference.

At Citizens’ Climate Lobby, we’re committed to building the political will for the climate solutions we all need. As empowered citizens, we talk with neighbors, friends, and local officials about how national climate action can help ensure a healthy future while strengthening the Canadian economy.

Our volunteers include high school students and concerned grandparents, a Canadian NASA rocket scientist living in Pasadena, health care workers from across Canada and many other walks of life. Some are PhD’s who have spent careers researching the intricacies of climate change; others are concerned citizens who just want to know how to help. Whatever our  backgrounds, we’re all united by a commitment to making our voices heard as we call for a healthy climate future.

CCL is a non-partisan international organization. Members of CCL’s International’s advisory board include: George P. Shultz, former US secretary of state; Dr. James Hansen, retired Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies; Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, Canadian Climate Scientist at Texas Tech University; and others. CCL believes politicians don’t create political will, they respond to it.

CCL believes citizens who are well trained, organized by ridings and with a good system of support can influence the political process. Our volunteers want Canada to lead the fight to save the global climate, and they want to help politicians achieve this noble goal.

GUEST AMENITIES
Complimentary hot buffet breakfast served daily
RIMix Monday to Wednesday for complimentary light fares
Free hi-speed internet access in every suite
Complimentary local phone calls
Laundry facilities
Fitness centre (open 24 hours) with indoor swimming pool
Underground parking
On-site Tim Horton’s: Mon-Fri 5:00 AM to 10:00 PM, Sat-Sun 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM *
Marriott Rewards Program
And a great sitting area for pre-lobby sessions.

Everything is Connected: Citizens’ Climate Lobby Canada’s National Conference and Lobby Days

Media Release: Friday, October 28, 2016
Contact: Cathy Orlando, cathy@citizensclimatelobby.org 705-929-4043

SUDBURY ON: From Saturday, November 26 to Tuesday, November 29, 2016 Citizens’ Climate Lobby Canada will be conducting our Third National Conference and Lobbying Days in Ottawa. Since September 2010, Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) Canada members have been lobbying their federal parliamentarians for carbon fee and dividend: an upstream, national and incrementally rising revenue neutral carbon tax where 100 percent of the revenue collected by the government is returned to citizens on an equitable basis in a cheque.

Our volunteers across Canada have been communicating about climate change and carbon pricing with their local leaders, media and at outreach events for over six years. Since 2010, we have had 1333 letters to the editor, articles and opinion pieces published in newspapers by or about us. In 2016, across Canada, currently we have lobbied our federal MPs 111 times in face-to-face meetings for carbon fee and dividend. After all this communicating it is impossible to ignore how everything is connected. And that is the theme of Citizens’ Climate Lobby Canada’s Third National Conference and Lobbying Days: Everything is Connected.

On October 3^rd, 2016, Prime Minister Trudeau announced Canada will have a national price on carbon. This is a significant step in the fight against climate change and we applaud the 42^ndParliament’s commitment to secure a healthy climate for us and future generations. We are heartened by the fact that the carbon price is national in scope, revenue neutral federally and it rises at $10 per year, starting at $10 per tonne in 2018 rising to $50 per tonne in 2022.

A price of $50 per tonne won’t be enough to meet Canada’s goal of reducing emissions to 30% below 2005 levels by 2030. As well, this goal is woefully inadequate.  If every country adopted Canada’s targets this would not keep warming below 2^oC, let alone the 1.5^oC nations promised to pursue in Paris. In short, the proposed national carbon price is a good starting point, but it isn’t enough.  We must do better. Citizens’ Climate Lobby volunteers will be urging the Canadian government to improve upon on the currently proposed carbon pricing policy.

We have an exciting line-up of speakers including: Glen Hodgson, newly appointed Senior Fellow and former Vice President and Chief Economist at the Conference Board of Canada and Renee Lertzman, author of Environmental Melancholia: Psychoanalytic Dimensions of Engagement. Ottawa City Councillor David Chernushenko is our venue sponsor and he will give opening comments on the Sunday.  For complete details explore the conference webpage HERE.

CCL is a non-partisan international organization. Members of CCL’s International’s advisory board include: George P. Shultz, former US secretary of state; Dr. James Hansen, retired Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies; Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, Canadian Climate Scientist at Texas Tech University; and others. CCL believes politicians don’t create political will, they respond to it. CCL believes citizens who are well trained, organized by ridings and with a good system of support can influence the political process. Our volunteers want Canada to lead the fight to save the global climate, and they want to help politicians achieve this noble goal.

Registration for the conference closes Friday, November 11, 2016.

https://www.youtube.com/user/CCLCan

Excitingly, we can currently confirm at least two politicians are addressing our conference: Ottawa City Councillor David Chernushenko and the Honourable Mary Polak, the Environment Minister for the Province of British Columbia. Renee Lertzman, Saturday’s keynote speaker, is a professor and author ofEnvironmental Melancholia: Psychoanalytic Dimensions of Engagement. Her 1.5-hour presentation and workshop will help our volunteers bring emotional intelligence to the tough communications surrounding carbon pricing. Glen Hodgson, newly appointed Senior Fellow and former Vice President and Chief Economist at the Conference Board of Canada and member of Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission, will be CCL Canada’s Keynote Speaker on Economics on Sunday afternoon. We also plan to dive deep into the wonky world of border tax adjustments with an expert panel, unravel Canada’s subsidies to the fossil fuel industry, be brought up to date on the carbon pricing developments at COP 22 and learn together about some of the connections between climate change to everything.

To date, 71 people have registered for the conference. On the Monday and Tuesday following the conference, 58 CCL members, which include four US citizens and three First Nation members, plan to lobby on Parliament Hill for carbon fee and dividend. As of Friday, November 18, 2016, our volunteers have secured 41 meetings with Members of Parliament (MP) face-to-face.  These are not final numbers.  Overall, 2016 promises to be the biggest year for CCL Canada yet because our volunteers have already conducted 118 face-to-face meetings with their MPs in 2016 and we have yet to conduct our biggest lobbying event of the year.

CANADIAN CIVICS 101

For the benefit of our American Guests

OVERVIEW: The USA is a democratic republic whereas Canada is a constitutional monarchy. The President is the elected head of state in the USA. Queen Elizabeth II is our head of state and she is represented in Canada by our Governor General, David Johnson. Our head of state is also called “the Crown”. Canada has a bicameral system, just like the USA, with lower and upper houses.

EXECUTIVE BRANCH: In Canada, the political party with the most seats in the House of Commons forms the government and the leader of that party becomes the Prime Minister (PM). The executive branch of the Canadian government is led by the PM and he/she appoints senior Members of Parliament to the executive in a cabinet adhering to the principle of cabinet collective responsibility. The Privy Council is the non-partisan, public service support to the PM and Cabinet and its decision-making structures.

HOUSE OF COMMMONS: Our lower house is called the House of Commons and it is the Canadian equivalent of the US House of Representatives. Our federal representatives are elected in electoral districts which we call ridings. We have 338 electoral districts for 35 million people.  Our federal representatives are called Members of Parliament or MPs. Until 2009, governments could call an election at any time within five years of being elected. Since 2009, we have legislated set election dates every four years, unless there is a non-confidence vote in the House of Commons which defeats the government and forces an election. This usually happens when we have minority governments.

MINORITY GOVERNMENTS A minority government happens when the ruling party does not have a majority of the seats in Parliament. Currently, we have a majority government under the Right Honourable Justin Trudeau (and yes, we add “u’s” to a lot of words up here). These recent governments were all minority governments: 2004-2006, 2006-2008 and 2008-2011. Canada is predisposed to minority governments because we have three major political parties and compared to the USA, a significant Green Party which garners about 5% of the popular vote and a regional party: the Bloc Québécois which currently holds 10 seats. Like in the USA and Britain, Canadian MPs are among the last representatives elected using a first-past-the-post ballot which many Canadians hope will change to some form of proportional representation.

THE CANADIAN SENATE: The Canadian Senate, unlike in the USA, is not elected. It is an appointed senate. Most senators hold their seat until the mandatory age of retirement. There are three types of senators in Canada: Independents, Liberals and Conservatives. Currently, Independents and Liberals combined in the Senate are in a majority. The Canadian senate is undergoing a reformation currently. The Senate is divided equally amongst four geographic regions: 24 for Ontario, 24 for Quebec, 24 for the Maritimes (10 for Nova Scotia, 10 for New Brunswick, and four for Prince Edward Island), and 24 for the Western provinces (six each for Manitoba, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Alberta). Newfoundland and Labrador, which became a Canadian province in 1949, is represented by six senators. Further, Canada’s three territories—the Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Nunavut—are allocated one senator each. An additional four or eight senators may be temporarily appointed by the governor general, provided the approval of the Queen is secured, and the four divisions are equally represented, thus putting the maximum possible number of senators at 113.

THE DOMINATE BRANCH: The House of Commons is the dominant branch of parliament with the Senate and the Crown rarely opposing its will. The Senate is meant to take a second sober look at bills before they pass into law. The Senate reviews legislation from a less partisan standpoint and the Governor General provides the necessary Royal Assent to make bills into law.

POWERS OF A MAJORITY GOVERNMENT: The Canadian Prime Minister in a majority government has powers that a US president could only dream of because she/he has complete control over the executive and the House of Commons for four years (we don’t have mid-term elections in Canada) and they are rarely opposed by the senate or the Governor General.

Citizen Lobbyists Cautiously Optimistic That Canada’s Low Carbon Transition is Underway
– Took a Pledge to Make Sure Progress Continues Past Election 2019 –

Media Release: Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Contact: Cathy Orlando, cathy@citizensclimatelobby.org 705-929-4043

SUDBURY, ON: From November 26-29, 2016, 53 Citizens’ Climate Lobby volunteers lobbied on Parliament Hill for improvements to Canada’s national carbon pricing policy and experienced their most productive week of lobbying to date in their six-year history in Canada. They lobbied 40 Members of Parliament (MP) and one senator in face-to-face meetings, as well as the staff of six parliamentarians. Included among the volunteers were three US citizens and three First Nations.

For over six years, Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) volunteers across Canada have been communicating about climate change and carbon pricing with their federal and provincial parliamentarians. In 2015, their attentions were more focused provincially. The last time CCL did a major federal lobbying push was in 2014. They officially recorded 55 face-to-face meetings that year. To date in 2016, CCL volunteers from across Canada have documented 157 face-to-face meetings with federal parliamentarians specifically to discuss Canada’s national carbon pricing policy. Thus, 2016 will be their biggest year of lobbying federal parliamentarians too.

Prior to lobbying, volunteers spent two days learning more about climate change and the political realities of creating change. The conference was live-streamed and can be viewed on Citizens’ Climate Lobby Canada’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/CCLCan

Conference speakers included:

• Their host, Ottawa City Councillor David Chernushenko welcomed attendees to Ottawa, highlighted some of the main climate protection efforts in Ottawa and  described the difficult balance of holding close to the perfect of what needs to get done and the political reality of getting re-elected.
• The Honourable Mary Polak, Environment Minister for the Province of British Columbia, rightly and proudly described the success of  BC’s carbon pricing policy and the accolades it has received internationally.
• Renee Lertzman, Saturday’s keynote speaker, who helped the volunteers bring emotional intelligence to the tough communications surrounding carbon pricing. One new CCL volunteer after the training said, “I now know that I need to listen carefully and not give politicians all the climate change information that is in my head.”
• Glen Hodgson was Sunday’s keynote speaker. He is the newly appointed Senior Fellow and former Vice President and Chief Economist at the Conference Board of Canada. He reinforced why a national and revenue-neutral carbon price is best for Canada.

Conference attendees and those watching virtually also dove deeply into the wonky world of border tax adjustments with an expert panel, unravelled Canada’s subsidies to the fossil fuel industry, received the latest on the carbon pricing developments at the international level and learned together about some of the connections of climate change to everything.

While lobbying on Parliament Hill, Parliamentarians from all parties showed interest in learning more about carbon pricing, border tax adjustments and fossil fuel subsidies. Especially compared to lobbying efforts federally in 2014, it seems that Canada’s transition to a low-carbon economy is well underway.

Marshall Saunders, Founder of Citizens’ Climate Lobby sent the volunteers the following message prior to lobbying, “Congratulations on passing the first national carbon fee in the hemisphere. It’s historic. Don’t tell anybody but you may have begun to turn the world upside down.”

Cathy Orlando, National Director of Citizens’ Climate Lobby Canada was cautiously optimistic. She declared, “How magnificent it is that in 2017 Canada will not only be celebrating its 150th anniversary and 100 years since the Battle of Vimy Ridge, history will also record 2017 as the year Canada passed into law the first national carbon price in North America.”

On Monday, October 3, 2016, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canada will establish a floor price on carbon pollution of $10 a tonne in 2018, rising to $50 a tonne by 2022.  Canada has turned a corner on climate action. The reality is Canada’s current GHG targets are woefully inadequate and the current carbon pricing plan needs improvements and more details.  While CCL was on Parliament Hill, the government of Canada approved two pipelines, adding to the concern that climate change is not being taken seriously by the government.

Volunteers at the conference acknowledged that Canada’s climate targets are currently inadequate and that there is a grave risk of losing the political resolve on the gains Canada has made to secure a healthy climate in the lead-up to next federal election in 2019. Thus, they made the following pledge:

“I want to live in a democracy where all politicians of all political stripes can get elected for pro-environmental policies, not in spite of them. Thus, in my riding, I pledge to generate the political will for a livable world. Specifically, I pledge to do my best to keep the discussions around climate change and carbon pricing factual, respectful and non-partisan in my local media, while doing community outreach and communicating with local leaders. All politics is local after all.”

Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) Canada is a non-profit, non-partisan, grassroots advocacy organisation with a twin focus: to create the political will for a livable planet and to empower people to claim their political and personal power. They have been lobbying for a national and revenue-neutral carbon price since September 2010 in Canada. They work very closely with their sister CCL group in the USA.

WANT TO SEE MORE PICTURES? : View the conference photo album on Facebook.