Hike the Hill at Home 2023
Thank you for your interest in participating in Hike the Hill at Home this year! This is a great opportunity for credit unions to meet with local MPs when they are in their ridings. This year’s program is focused on telling the incredible impact of credit unions on communities across Canada.
It is important to connect with your legislators to share the work your credit union has done for your members. It is also a great opportunity to engage legislators in person by inviting them to tour your local branch or inviting them to your local community BBQ or event. This can help you maximize your time and legislators love attending community events where they can meet their constituents (your members!).
Coordinated and proactive meetings between you and your local legislators will help to reinforce the good work the sector is doing to help Canadians, while building relationships that your credit union can count on to help advance your local issues.
You can find your MP and send them an e-mail using our advocacy website CuNation. The website has a tool to find MPs that represent ridings your branches are in, and then you can email them with our built-in template letter.
CCUA has a meeting guide with meeting messages, tips and a checklist to help you prepare for meetings available here.
Meeting materials for the MP, including our ESG report and our credit union fast facts, are available here. We also suggest you bring your credit union annual report to highlight your work.
As always, we encourage you to report back on your meetings using CuNation, so we know how many meetings we’ve had and how they went. This is key to our future advocacy efforts.
If you have any questions or would like any help, please do not hesitate to contact Natalie Edmondson.
Grassroots Advocacy
Advocating for credit unions is a collective system-wide effort that starts from the ground-up. Our Government Relations team lobbies and collaborates with government and related stakeholders on behalf of credit unions to ensure that the sector’s interests, needs and issues are duly considered and addressed.
Our team’s central focus is to support the credit union sector and represent their interests however credit unions and their staff are our best advocates to ensure Members of Parliament (MPs), Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs) and Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) understand how credit unions do banking differently. CCUA provides grassroots advocates with government relations training and resources through the CU Nation® advocacy network and our online advocacy centre. You can join our advocacy at CUNation.
Government Relations Forum & Hike the Hill
Every year in the fall, CCUA organizes a Government Relations Forum and Hike the Hill in Ottawa, to bring together credit union sector employees and government officials from across the country.
The forum allows legislators to become informed about the sector, their role in communities and the challenges faced in delivering products and services to their members.
Since 2009, Hike the Hill has been a very successful advocacy and engagement event. It is now a staple for credit unions and one which garners much attention from the sector. We look forward to continuing to support this event in collaboration with credit unions.