What we do…
We lobby in support of our Carbon Fee and Dividend proposal by building friendly relationships with our federally elected representatives. We do so with respect, appreciation and gratitude for their service.
We write letters to the editor and op-eds, and meet with editorial boards to gain their editorial endorsement.
We facilitate presentations and table at events to promote CCL and introduce others to our Carbon Fee and Dividend proposal.
We support our volunteer chapters with monthly conference calls, and we support the leaders of those chapters with regular conference calls and a network of people to support them.
What we believe…
Politicians don’t create political will, they respond to it. We believe citizens who are well-trained, organized by Ridings and with a good system of support can more than influence the political process.
In respect for all viewpoints, even for those who would oppose us.
Based on what climate scientists and economists tell us, we believe that Carbon Fee and Dividend is the best first step to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to mitigate the impacts of a changing climate.
All politics is local. Thus we build political will for a liveable world by building relationships locally with our politicians, community leaders and local media as well as educating our community. The resources below will help you get started:
Getting Started
Welcome to Citizens’ Climate Lobby Canada! We educate and lobby for a predictable, incrementally increasing and fair price on carbon pollution policy called “The Carbon Fee and Dividend Act.”
Here’s some of the basic information about who we are and what we do. If you have any further questions, don’t hesitate to contact us.
- A cartoon that explains what we lobby for also available in pdf and also USA version in png and pdf
- Past Calls and Monthly Actions – Archive of our monthly international calls and each month’s tasks
- Laser Talks – Short overviews of a number of topics relevant to CCL, from the impact of NAFTA on carbon fee and dividend to the impact of China on global climate.
- Ten Key Strategies of a Citizen Climate Lobbyist
All Things Media
Op Eds
Letters to the editors
- Links to many Canadian LTE submission pages (updated March 2018)
- CCL USA’s Letter to Editor Resources Page
- Tips for getting Letters to the Editor (LTEs) published and how to get the most out of them (updated January 2017)
- RESULTS resource for linking to many papers across Canada
- Power Point Presentation on writing LTEs
- Examples of Lobbying Stories by CCL Canadians
- Sample LTEs
- Create a writing team
Meeting with editorial boards
- Meeting with editorial boards
- CCL USA’s meeting with editorial boards page
- Recent CCL Published Media (all of CCL internationally)
Media Releases
- Tips for writing media releases for local CCL events and an example
- CCL Canada Media Releases
Outreach and Tabling
- Square CCL Canada banner
- Rectangular CCL Canada banner
- Rectangular banner with words
- Poster: Progressive Policies Reward Carbon-Friendly Consumer Habits
- Poster: The Five Chief Ways to Price Carbon (full-length, 28x28in or abbreviated, 21×37.5in)
- Poster: Citizen Climate Lobbyists create political will by…
- Poster: Why Carbon Fee and Dividend?
- 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
- Carbon dividend cheque: English and French
- Ressources en Français
- Brand Guidelines-3.13.20
Handouts
General CCL trifold brochure in English (2023) in Word so you can add and subtract things. |
Updated February 2023 | |
Customizable CCL business card, 3.5x2in.Colour: PDF, PNG or JPG Black/white: PDF, PNG or JPG Greyscale: PDF, PNG or JPGDon’t forget to put your own contact information on the back, e.g. black/white or colour |
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“Everything is connected” poster PDF (English) and French | ||
The graphic novel: Because IPCC In February 2022 we introduced CCLers to the graphic novel: Because IPCC which is great for presentation and tabling. Check out our Laser Talk about Because IPCC to find out more and how you can download free copies and graphics for your outreach. |
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The Five Levers of Political Will
Levers of Political Will
These are the five core activities that all Citizens’ Climate Lobby chapters leverage to bring citizens into the political process and to ensure their contribution is constructive and makes more good possible. We call these activities the “levers of political will.”
- Lobbying: We train citizens how to lobby in support of our Carbon Fee and Dividend proposal by building friendly relationships with our federally elected representatives.
- Media relations: We train citizens how to engage with and influence the media. We write letters to the editors and op-eds, meet with editorial boards and work to place stories in all forms of media.
- Grassroots outreach: We recruit and educate the public on climate solutions, citizen advocacy and how to participate with one’s government.
- Grasstops outreach: We seek to educate, build partnerships with and gain the support of community leaders and non-governmental organizations, both nationally and locally.
- Chapter development: It is through the growth and management of the local CCL group/chapter, that it becomes possible to push on the other four levers for building political will.
Note we are not “against” anything: we are for carbon fee and dividend. Carbon pricing policies in Canada will be assessed using the following criteria available in English and in French.
Lobbying Tool Kit
GENERAL PROVINCIAL Leave Behind – 2023
ONTARIO PROVINCIAL RESOURCES – 2023
FEDERAL 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.
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.
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Check out the House of Commons Calendar to know when your MP will be in your riding to lobby.
We also recommend you bring any published media your group has generated and a list of signatories from your community to our Open Letter. If you are new to CCL you can bring our most recent editorial packet
Possible 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
Parliamentary Petition Project
PURPOSE: We use petitions to educate parliamentarians and our local communities about the urgency of the climate crisis and solutions to improve the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act as well as other policies that redirect financial flows, amd cap emissions. There has been a special request from youth to support a petition too.
Federal Emissions Cap (Word)
Federal Emissions Cap Petition
Federal Methane-fired Electricity Petition (Word)
Federal Methane-fired Electricity Petition English
Climate Aligned Finance Act Petition (pdfs)
CAFA English
CAFA Francais
*NEW* A Petition to Enact a Fossil Fuel Advertising Act (Word)
Fossil fuel advertising act petition
Ontario Methane-fired Electricity Petitions (Word)
Heat pumps, the OEB and the Natural Gas Extension Program
Transitioning away from *Methane-Fired Electricity and Heating
Government resources:
The Path of Paper Petition
Paper Petitions – Guide and Terms of Use
For Further Information
Clerk of Petitions
Room 314-C, West Block
House of Commons
Tel: 613-992-9511
Fax: 613-947-7626
Email PMB-AED@parl.gc.ca
Instructions:
- Have people sign the petition at outreach events and/or carry a copy of it and ask friends and acquaintances to sign it.
- Once you have obtained 30 signatures, call your MP’s office
- Identify yourself as a constituent of his/her riding
- Ask if your MP if he/she would be willing to read our Parliamentary Petition on climate change in its entirety (excluding the signatories) in the House of Commons
- Print the petition on legal (8.5 x 14) or letter-size (8.5 x 11) paper.
- Make sure there are three lines for signatures on the first page.
- Make sure there is a line at the top of every signature page thereafter indicating that it is a parliamentary petition and its topic.
- Get at least 25 signatures on the petition – follow the instructions closely. We recommend getting 30 just to be safe.
- Once completed, copy it for your files if you wish, then bring the original file to your MP’s office to be read in Parliament.
Hand-deliver or send the original copy of the petition to:
YOUR MP’S NAME
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6
No stamp is required for Parliament in Ottawa.
If your MP does not want to read the petition, you can send it to other MPs who will. Follow up by asking when it will be read in Parliament, how it was received and a big thank you via snail mail, email, and social media. Please inform us in your monthly Citizens’ Climate Lobby field report if your petition has been read aloud in the House of Commons. It is considered to be outreach. By informing the national office we can thank them on Twitter and Facebook.
Cabinet Ministers are not permitted to read petitions in the House of Commons as it would constitute a “conflict of interest”. Thus if your MP is a cabinet Minister you should inform him/her about the petition and ask if he or she could suggest another MP from your province who might read the petition instead.
WE DID IT!
Please note this 2020 petition 2020 to the Government of Canada to Improve the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act was implemented.
CCLC Petition September 2020 ENGLISH (PDF)
CCLC Petition Septembre 2020 FRANCAIS (PDF)
PARLIAMENTARY E-PETITIONS
We have successfully conducted two parliamentary e-petitions.
PARLIAMENTARY E-PETITION APRIL 2020 – CLOSED AUGUST 18, 2020 On April 2020, 2020 CCL Canada launched an e-petition (#e2542) for improvements in the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act. Nickel Belt MP Marc Serre (Liberal) sponsored the petition.
PARLIAMENTARY E-PETITION MAY 2016 – Closed On May 11, 2016, CCL Canada launched an e-petition (#e297) for carbon fee and dividend. Beaches-East York MP Nathaniel Erskine Smith (Liberal) sponsored the petition.
REGARDING NATIONAL e-PARLIAMENTARY PETITIONS:
Online parliamentary petitions and any online petition are a lot of work. We know this because we have successfully done two of them. Here are the steps:
- First, there must be buy-in from most of the CCL group leaders – especially from the Parliamentary Petition Team – the team that knows the intricate steps.
- Then we need to form an eager National Action Team with clear job descriptions, and a step-by-step plan to attain 1000+++ signees. This is a multi-step process.
- Join CCL Canada monthly calls if you ever have the idea to do an online Parliamentarian Petition and talk it over with your national colleagues. We row together. No one person makes decisions for national actions.
How we plan our subnational and national actions
HOW WE PLAN OUR SUBNATIONAL AND NATIONAL ACTIONS
VOLUNTEERS ARE OUR MOST VALUED RESOURCE. CCL has the best volunteers on the planet. Almost all of our monthly actions are determined by them. We value the time our volunteers dedicate to us. We do our best to listen and provide actions that will help them create the political will for a liveable world in their ridings.
PLANNING FOR ACTIONS OCCURS MONTHS IN ADVANCE. We plan monthly actions months in advance based on the information our volunteers are sending to us in their reports and what else is happening nationally and globally.
THE PROCESS. We, as volunteers, have been actively creating the political will for carbon pricing in Canada since September 2010. This is the process that works and gives everyone time to savour the planet:
- If you have a suggestion for an action that you would like for CCL Canada to consider here is what to do: discuss it with your local team, email canada@citizensclimateclimate.org or phone our national director (check your emails) to set up an appointment to discuss the idea. Please give us any resources in advance and suggested timelines. Also, share stories, facts, and evidence of how you know this action will be successful and in line with our 2020 Carbon Pricing Guidelines and Leave Behind. Ask yourself this question: How will this action help build political will locally for protecting and improving Canada’s national carbon pricing policy?
- To help us determine if your idea is a good action we often bring the idea to the membership to see if there is an appetite for the action and seek out a national action team to support it if necessary. That action team meets to discuss timelines, roles, communication and responsibilities in the action sheets.
- If the idea is collectively deemed feasible and valuable, we put it in the action sheets at a time that is most advantageous to what is happening subnationally, nationally, and internationally.
- This cooperation keeps workflow manageable for all, and expectations realistic.
Please don’t initiate something that will require help and resources from the national office on behalf of CCL without going through the national office first. CCL’s one and only rule is respect and admiration for service. Thanks for considering everyone’s service and workflow.