Building Relationships: Meeting with Canadian Minister of Health

[ScottTriGuy]

Here is my report after meeting with the Health Minister on Wed...


Building Bridges and Laying Foundations

Building relationships is hard! Getting the meeting with Minister Petitpas Taylor has been many months in the making.

The short story is three of us had each individually managed to garner an invite from the Minister to meet with her about ME:

Jeffery Smith because he’s universally lovable, and Sabrina Poirier because she’s disarmingly charming, and myself because I’m more of a ranting loudmouth. Collectively, it is a result of executing an inside / outside advocacy strategy to apply pressure with both the carrot and the stick.

The three of us understand and value the importance of building relationships with the government in order to effect change, so we combined our invites into one meeting. Sabrina, our ME Patient Ambassador for IMHA/CIHR, worked hard to set up not one but two meetings (part 1 as prep for part 2) — first with the Minister’s Policy Advisor via video conference a couple of weeks ago, and then with the Minister herself.

Once we secured dates and location, we then reached out to the patients and allies from across Canada who have been working collaboratively on building ME research capacity, to help prepare and participate in the meetings...

The rest of the report.

 

[Gingergrrl]

Jeffery Smith because he’s universally lovable, and Sabrina Poirier because she’s disarmingly charming, and myself because I’m more of a ranting loudmouth.

But of course you are lovable and charming, too ... but seriously, this is amazing and major props to you all for doing this!

 

[ScottTriGuy]

Thanks @Gingergrrl - hopefully it will have been a pivotal moment for ME in Canada...time will tell.

The flying to and fro really knocked me down, still trying to get up, but slowly recovering.

 

[lafarfelue]

well done, this is truly exiting news!

I hope you recover from the to-ing and fro-ing as quickly and smoothly as possible

 

[Alvin2]

Wow, very good news.

You might even start by asking for "just" $10 million (since they will argue they can't afford what your requesting) then ask for equitable funding once you get it, take advantage of in for a penny in for a pound (also known as the foot in the door effect).

 

[ScottTriGuy]

well done, this is truly exiting news!

I hope you recover from the to-ing and fro-ing as quickly and smoothly as possible

Thanks @lafarfelue

The next day was 10 hours of laying in a dark silent room while my head felt like it would explode - and contemplating and appreciating MAID (medical assistance in dying).

But much better the subsequent day, and over it be the 3rd day.

 

[ScottTriGuy]

Wow, very good news.

You might even start by asking for "just" $10 million (since they will argue they can't afford what your requesting) then ask for equitable funding once you get it, take advantage of in for a penny in for a pound (also known as the foot in the door effect).

Turns out the key is to submit a funding request for the federal budget - and the submission has to be top notch to make the case - so we've added that to our to-do list - but yeah, $10M for year one would be a good start.

 

[Dechi]

Thank you so much for doing this ! And I can personally attest that you do have charm. Lots of it.

 

[Alvin2]

Turns out the key is to submit a funding request for the federal budget - and the submission has to be top notch to make the case - so we've added that to our to-do list - but yeah, $10M for year one would be a good start.

Interesting. Who would know what makes a submission top notch?
Sometimes its best to start with a direct number, enough to make a difference but hopefully not too high that makes them say no way.
Perhaps $20 million is a better number so if they negotiate it down to $15 million its still a solid start?

 

[ScottTriGuy]

Interesting. Who would know what makes a submission top notch?
Sometimes its best to start with a direct number, enough to make a difference but hopefully not too high that makes them say no way.
Perhaps $20 million is a better number so if they negotiate it down to $15 million its still a solid start?

We're getting a couple of samples of successful budget submissions - iirc, the submission goes to the govts financial office, not Health Canada's office, so the Health Minister is not the one who approves or not the funding request submission.

I also don't think the federal budget office (can't think of their proper name) engages in negotiations, my understanding is that they either approve or not - but I'm just at the beginning of the process, so much to learn.