Pandemic created ‘uneven playing field’ for lobbyists: professor

The COVID-19 crisis created an uneven playing field for organizations lobbying the government, with those who can help in the COVID-19 fight having the upper hand, says a Mount Allison University professor.

“If you cannot translate what your needs are into their priorities, which right now is getting through COVID, you’ll get very little from the government,” said political scientist Mario Levesque. But if an organization can frame their “asks” as helping the province through the crisis, they may find they are received far faster than in the past, he said.

Natalie Dash, a registered lobbyist for Campbell Strategies, was able to do this successfully early in the pandemic for her client, Staples, which faced a brief period of uncertainty as to whether their stores could remain open as an “essential service.” The case was made by Dash and her team that Staples’ supplies were essential for the province, and for residents working at home, through this period.

“Governments have been looking for solutions and options for dealing with the COVID-19 crisis,” she said. “Governments across Canada, including New Brunswick, have been more flexible and what may have taken weeks or months, is happening in days, sometimes hours,” she said.

“Businesses have reached out to the government for clarification on requirements under the mandatory order,” government spokesperson Mary-anne Hurley-corbyn told the Times & Transcript, “and we encourage them to continue to do so as we move into the recovery phase.”