Insurance industry should lobby MPPs at grassroots level

In order to effect change in government policy, members of the insurance industry need to become ‘lobbyists’ at the grassroots level and focus on developing a relationship with their local elected government official.
Dennis Prouse, director of federal government relations for the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC), offered the seminar entitled Insurance in Politics: Where do we stand? as part of the Insurance Institute of Ontario’s Education Week in Toronto.
Key to influencing government policy, he said, is for members of the insurance industry to take the time as constituents to speak with their local MPP/MP. Prouse pointed to the ICAN Network (Insurance Community Action Network) as an example of a volunteer-based organization that was instrumental in defeating government auto in Ontario and in winning two bank insurance debates.
The majority of elected officials, he explained, lack a business background and few understand how the insurance industry functions.
By taking the time to have both formal and informal conversations — at a constituency barbeque, for example — long-term relationships can be forged between government and industry members.
“Too many elected officials believe that the insurance industry is made up of people in glass towers. Make them aware that it’s the people in their neighbourhood,” he said. “By getting to know them in a more casual setting, our issues get put forward in a low-key, local manner and we also get a first-hand ‘weather report’ as to what MPPs are feeling and hearing.”
As an industry we need to ensure that we have solid research and information available to elected officials, he stressed.
By increasing contact and providing members of government with information, eventually “constituents” will become a “trusted partner or credible source of information,” he continued. As a result, “the insurance industry will have easier access to government decision makers, quicker government response to industry issues/inquiries, unsolicited requests from government to meet on like-minded issues and the government will invite us to the podium at their media event,” he said.