The road to advocacy

Many proposed projects or laws can impact the way you do business and affect your long-term growth.

The Chamber actively advocates on behalf of our membership, providing an effective voice for the business community and making sure better decisions are made.
 
This page describes The Chamber’s advocacy process.
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Criteria
​We work with stakeholders to identify issues among the business community, and what actions government can take to address those concerns.

​Issues must be:

• of significance to The Chamber’s membership,
• a ‘business issue’
• timely, and​ have a direct relationship to The Chamber’s vision, mission, values, goals and priorities.

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Definitions

• Policy  Resolutions  are one of the ways The Chamber defines problems and advocate for solutions. Policy Resolutions are approved by The Chamber board and remain in effect until amended or revoked. 

• Advocacy covers a broad range of activities, including lobbying. Advocacy is a system of actions directed at changing attitudes, policies, positions, practices or programs in society. Advocacy refers to any activity that attempts to change policies, usually those of government, and can include working directly with the public on the attitudes and perception of specific issues.

• Lobbying is a subset of advocacy that aims to influence specific legislation. Almost all social change has started with non-lobbying advocacy and ended with major lobbying efforts. Examples include the protection of women’s rights and child labour laws. Each initially combined a broad spectrum of non-lobbying advocacy activities, with lobbying employed somewhat later to achieve the needed change.​

Policy Development

The Chamber represents business interests and our recommendations are largely outcome-focused. Specific decision-making authorities/regulatory bodies are expected to create the detailed policy required to support their operations.
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1. Policy Initiation

The Chamber’s Public Policy and Advocacy Committee monitors business, economic and political environments to identify issues of interest. Issues are identified by whether they:
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• fit with Chamber priorities
• fit with existing Chamber policy
• fit with business principles
• affect the right scope of businesses 
• provide opportunities for our partners
• able to have a successful outcome.

​​The Committee develops and recommends to the Board a list of priorities for policy development at the start of each year. The Committee will also provide input during the policy development stage to identify the best solution for the business community.
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2. Approval

Policies approved by the Board are kept in the electronic policy binder and posted to The Chamber website. The approval of policies will be listed as a motion in the board minutes.
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3. Evaluation

​All policies are reviewed annually by the Policy and Government Affairs Committee and any updates approved by The Chamber’s Board. Policies remains in effect until amended or revoked by the Board of Directors, with successful policies of note shared under "Policies Achieved".
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Advocacy

Once a policy is approved, The Chamber’s designated spokespeople will advocate that policy on behalf of the membership. Specific advocacy efforts will depend on the specifics of a policy and will relate to:

• who is the decision making authority,
• who are the affected stakeholders,
• the anticipated public interest, and
• partners in support of our position.

Advocacy Activities include but are not limited to:

• meetings with stakeholders and decision makers,
• media relations,
• distribution of communications products,
• letter writing campaigns,
• public/member information sessions, and
• political candidate forums.

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Lobbying

As defined by the BC Lobbyist Registration Act, lobbying is to communicate with a public office holder in an attempt to influence a range of activities, including:

• the introduction, amendment, passage or defeat of any Bill or resolution in or before the Legislative Assembly,
• the development or enactment of any regulation, including the enactment of a regulation for the purposes of amending or repealing a regulation,
• the development, establishment, amendment or termination of any program, policy, directive or guideline of the government of British Columbia or a Provincial entity, and
• to arrange a meeting between a public office holder and any other individual for the purposes of attempting to influence any of the above.​

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​The BC Lobbyist Registration Act requires those who spends 100 hours or more a year lobbying to register with the Office of the Registrar of Lobbyists for British Columbia. The Chamber CEO as well as the Manager of Policy and Public Affairs are registered as in-house lobbyists under the Act.
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Summary

​The policy development process is designed to identify issues of concern to the business community and allow for informed review and decision making by the Board of Directors.