UNDAUNTED: Our 2023 National Conference and Lobbying Days

Leave Behind – Fall 2023 
A gentle reminder that you don’t lobby for everything in the Leave Behind – you select what you think is best for your context. To help you understand each point we have compiled a Laser Talks booklet.

Laser Talks Booklet – Fall 2023 
To support your lobbying efforts, the Laser Talks Action Team has done its best to compile the most relevant Laser Talks.
Note that you don’t need to learn all of them – just the ones relevant to your lobbying asks. We encourage you to print a couple copies, read them, take notes, and bring them with you when you lobby.

Undaunted Conference Booklet  
It contains our 2023 Autumn leave-behind, other lobbying resources, and key laser talks for when you lobby. We encourage you to print copies, read them, take notes, and bring extra copies when you lobby. Literally, use them as visual prompts when lobbying. If your MP takes a booklet for themselves, you know they are interested.

Getting ready to lobby document
The lead person makes sure there is a biography of the parliamentarian in a document. Lobbyists meet before the lobbying session to review the document, assign roles in the meeting, the focus of their lobbying based on the most current “leave behind” and design possible motivational interviewing questions.

CCCL Lobbying 101 
Our PowerPoint presentation for lobby training.

We have selected which Fall 2023 CCL Canada Laser Talks we think are best as background for each of our lobbying asks noting that that everyone should read the first three laser talks:

• Climate Income a.k.a Carbon Fee and Dividend
• The Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act
• Output-Based Pricing Systems (OBPS)

Follow the European Union’s lead in implementing a CBAM by 2026. To prepare for CBAM, Canada’s carbon pricing policies must be harmonized in terms of the price of carbon pollution, coverage (GHG emissions and sources of emissions) and transparency.

• Output-Based Pricing Systems (OBPS)
• Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanisms (CBAMs)

Study the appropriate rate of increasing the carbon price beyond 2030 to provide certainty so that households, businesses, and industries can plan accordingly.

• Pembina Simulator Shows Carbon Pricing As Core Component of Any Cost-Effective Climate Plan 
• EnROADS Simulator Finds Carbon Pricing Key in Emissions Reduction Worldwide  
• Canada’s Climate Income Policy Cuts GHGs

Request that the Parliamentary Budget Officer in future reports on the impact of the federal carbon pricing on households take into account the social cost of carbon, and the economic benefits of carbon pricing as well as Canada’s entire suite of climate policies on households compared to doing nothing. 

• Important Reports from the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) 31
• The PBO is fuelling opposition to Canada’s climate policies 32
• Impacts of Canada’s Climate Policies on One Saskatchewan Household
• The Social Cost of Carbon

Educate impacted Canadians about the rebates they receive under the GGPPA’s Fuel Charge in provinces where it applies. Most households that receive the rebates are unaware that they realise financial gains from carbon pricing.

• Fair Path Forward’s Rebate Calculator  
• The Carbon Inequality Brontosaurus Chart  
• Carbon Inequality in the G20 Nations  
• Pollution pricing with equal dividends enhances equity and development
• Canada, Carbon Pricing and Agriculture
• Does Canada’s carbon tax impact the price of food?
• Carbon Pricing and the Cost of Gas

(a) Move methane-gas-powered electricity from the Output-Based Pricing System into the Fuel Charge section of the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act (GGPPA).
(b) Enact the new Clean Electricity Regulations by December 2023 and ensure that they effectively disincentivize the construction and operation of unabated methane-fired electricity plants.

• Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanisms (CBAMs)
• Immediate Methane Cuts Can Prevent Nearly a Million Premature Deaths  
• Health Impacts of Methane-Fired Electricity Plants  
• Ontario Should Pause Expansion of Methane-Fired Electricity Plants  
• Carbon Pricing and  Methane-fired Electricity Generation  
• Path to net-zero electricity can be found in recent federal budget  
• Canada’s Proposed Clean Electricity Regulations
• Carbon Capture and Sequestration is Risky Business

Additionally, we strongly recommend a cap on emissions. In fact, seven out ten Canadians support a cap on emissions. A cap is necessary to maintain geographical and sectoral balance in Canada’s economy as we transition to net-zero.

• Why CCL Canada is pushing for more than just carbon pricing
• Why we need a cap on GHGs in the oil and gas sector

Lastly, we are calling on our parliamentarians to explore Senator Rosa Galvez’s Bill S-243, An Act to enact the Climate-Aligned Finance Act (CAFA) and to make related amendments to other Acts. At this time we are asking our parliamentarians to review it, consider supporting it or possibly championing parts or all of it. 

• Why CCL Canada is pushing for more than just carbon pricing
• Why we support the aligning Canada finance with the climate
• The UN Report: Integrity Matters

Inviting your Parliamentarians

Phone and email your MPs to let them know that you are planning to lobby them in October. 

Ideally, you’ll be able to arrange a lobbying time during the outlined lobbying dates above, but if your MP is unavailable then, you can lobby them any time they are available in October!

Phone Script Outline

• Introduce yourself as a constituent in [insert name of electoral district]
• Express authentic appreciation for something the politician has done lately. 
• Introduce Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) Canada
  • Non-partisan, volunteer-led, not-for-profit founded in Canada in 2010.
  • Since 2010 we have been focused on advocating for a Carbon Fee and Dividend policy – a policy that is effective and economically efficient
  • Chapters across Canada, representing over 120 ridings 
• Let them know that on Monday, October 16 and Tuesday, October 17, CCL volunteers from across the country will be meeting with our Members of Parliament to hear their thoughts on Canada’s current climate policies and carbon pricing in Canada, and to work on shared goals for tackling the climate crisis together
• Let them know you would like to schedule a meeting with them for sometime during these two days, or another date in October
• Inform the staff you will be emailing soon after as well to follow-up and confirm the date, time, and meeting details with them. Be sure to get the best email handle for the staffer. 
• Thank them  

Email Script (Replace grey text in square brackets as appropriate.)

Dear [insert Title and Name of Parliamentarian],

I am a constituent of yours in [insert name of electoral district]. I volunteer with a group called Citizens’ Climate Lobby Canada (“CCL”), which is a non-profit, non-partisan, grassroots advocacy organization that strives to support political will for action against climate change with one particular policy: the Carbon Fee and Dividend. With over 40 active chapters across Canada, representing more than 120 ridings, CCL has been solely focused on supporting this policy since its inception in September 2010.

On Monday, October 16, Tuesday, October 17 and throughout October, CCL volunteers from across the country will be meeting with our Parliamentarians to hear their thoughts on current climate policy and carbon pricing in Canada, and discuss how we can work on shared goals for tackling the climate crisis together.

We would appreciate meeting with you to hear your views on these topics,   and how we can work together to tackle the current climate crisis.

Specifically, we are interested in talking to MP [name of MP] about CCL Canada’s Fall 2023 lobbying asks. <<You can cut and paste the very specific ask you would like to discuss with your MP or provide them with choice. 

My fellow constituents and I are looking forward to having an opportunity to introduce ourselves and get to know you.

Kind regards, 

[insert Constituent name]

The location for the Conference is the Lord Elgin Hotel.
100 Elgin Street | Ottawa | ON, K1P 5K8
tel: (613) 235-3333 Web: lordelginhotel.ca

Block room bookings have now expired.

Lobbying: We will be lobbying on Monday and Tuesday. Please do your best to not schedule meetings from 12-3 pm on Monday.

All times are given in EDT.

Sunday, October 15, 2023

Ontario Room, Lord Elgin Hotel
1 pm – 6 pm
1:00 pm – doors open – light snacks provided
1:30 pm – Welcome and Land Acknowledgement
1:40 pm – Icebreaker activities
1:45 pm – Facilitated visioning 2023-2025 for CCL Canada
3:00 pm break
3:30 pm – Getting ready to lobby, schedules, forming teams, and designing motivational interviewing questions
5:00 pm – light dinner

For online participants who registered, please look in your emails for the passcode to this Zoom room.

Monday, October 16, 2023

12:30 pm – Welcome and Land Acknowledgement
12:35 pm – “Taxes and the Path to a Green Economy”. Erika Beauchesne is the communications coordinator at Canadians for Tax Fairness, a non-profit, non-partisan organization that advocates for fair and progressive tax policies, aimed at building a strong and sustainable economy, reducing inequalities, and funding quality public services.
1:15 pm – five-minute break
1:20 pm – “Heat pumps pay off: Unlocking lower-cost heating and cooling in Canada”. Christiana Guertin is a Research Associate at the Canadian Climate Institute with a focus on mitigation research and climate policy. At the Institute she supported and led various research projects including their research on the affordability of heat pumps and the transition of Canada’s electricity sector. Her presentation will draw from this research.
2:00 pm – 5:00 pm  – lobby preparations and promoting our #LeMomentEstVenu campaign

You can Zoom into Erika and Christiana’s presentations on Monday afternoon:  Register on Zoom.