Government Report

Background

As discussed in the last issue of CSA NEWS, we are requesting a "call to action" by the CSA membership to directly contact your local and federal politicians regarding various important CSA issues.

As you can appreciate, politicians and bureaucrats are constantly being lobbied by groups regarding issues, particularly those involving health care, since these issues are increasingly important to our aging population. The CSA is seeking other means of influencing the government in addition to the representations your association has been making for years. We need your personal voice!

We ask that you use letters, e-mails, telephone calls or any other acceptable means of communication to let our politicians and bureaucrats hear your individual voice which, collectively, will be the voice of our members en masse. As we all know, there is some truth to the saying "the squeaky wheel gets the grease" ­ or in our case ­ wheels get the grease.

On the pages that follow, you will find a brief summary of the issues, charts describing your province's policy regarding a given issue, a contact list (on the back cover) of all provincial health ministers and the federal health minister including their mailing addresses, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses, plus sample letters you can use or draw from to have your voice heard.

The method is easy! We have drafted four sample letters (on the pages that follow) that we encourage you to write and send by mail or e-mail, or via any other acceptable means of communication, to let your provincial and federal politicians and bureaucrats know your views.

We believe that these letters express the points we feel are important, and that may assist in getting the "squeaky wheel greased." Feel free to personalize these letters with your own experiences and please send the CSA copies of your communications, so we can measure the success of our effort.

We thank you in advance for your time and effort in this initiative, and remember, we are only as powerful as our members, so now is your time to act!