GOVERNMENT RELATIONS As a member-driven organization, the Advocis Government Relations (GR) team works with Provincial Advocacy Committee (PAC) Chairs to engage Advocis members on government advocacy initiatives. The Advocis GR team collaborates proactively with politicians, staffers, and non-elected officials across the country towards the goal of improving the competitiveness of financial advisors and ensuring the regulatory environment has the best interests of consumers at heart, while not hindering our members’ growth and prosperity. Our ongoing grassroots approach to developing lasting relationships between members and elected officials is accomplished through our PACs.
Advocacy in unprecedented times The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the focus of governments. In response, our advocacy focus transitioned from advocating on our key issues to ensuring government supports were adequate, and that the financial health of Canadians was protected. In early 2020, the GR team took the difficult but necessary step of cancelling all Legislature Days that were scheduled to take place throughout the year. Furthermore, Advocis GR staff instructed all PACs to cease lobbying activities until further notice to respect governments across the country as they focused on the pandemic. The GR team was hard at work ensuring that members’ voices remained heard by government officials across the country. In the Winter of 2020, GR staff communicated with officials from the federal Ministry of Finance to ensure federal COVID-19 supports for businesses would not exclude financial advisors. To leverage the credo by which Advocis adheres – “Non solis nobis” – the GR team worked with the Communications and Marketing team to launch the Advocis Connect program in March 2020. By the end of 2020, nearly 400 financial advisors from across Canada answered our call to offer pro-bono financial advice to small businesses that needed it during the pandemic. These efforts resulted in positive feedback from government officials across the country.
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