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In the Fall of 2020, Canada’s forest products sector came to us with a challenge: despite having a compelling story to tell, their message was not getting through. Research told us that it wasn’t that Canadians inherently held a dim view of the sector — it was that they simply did not know enough about forestry to have a strong opinion. With that as a guiding principle, we launched Forestry For The Future, a large-scale, multi-channel advocacy and awareness program designed to distill the complexity of the sector down to a consumable narrative. It was a marked success; in Year One we saw a 14% increase in Canadians’ opinion of the sector and a 5–7% increase in their overall knowledge of the sector’s practices.

The Sussex Municipal Practice has a long history of working with clients to best position them as a preferred proponent in an RFQ/RFP bid process in Toronto and other GTA municipalities. We successfully obtained a crucial multi-million contract extension for GFL, a recognized Material Recovery Facilities (MRF) provider in Toronto. Through targeted political advocacy, we highlighted GFL's industry contributions, showcased their long-standing partnership with the municipality, and differentiated them from competitors through investments in state-of-the-art infrastructure. Our strategic approach also cultivated influential political champions, ensuring ongoing success amidst evolving regulations and international policies. This achievement ensures contract stability, reliable processing services, and supports the City's waste management goals.

Wataynikaneyap Power (Watay Power) is a licensed transmission company owned by 22 First Nations communities. They have partnered with Fortis Ontario on a $1.34 billion transmission line project that is connecting remote, fly-in First Nations communities to the provincial power grid. The communities were using unreliable, environmentally dangerous and costly diesel generation, and the ability to access clean, reliable energy through the provincial grid meant the potential for true revitalization.

Sussex was engaged to provide integrated government relations and strategic communications services to advance the project, including media relations, stakeholder engagement, communications collateral and video production. From a communications perspective, this involved developing Watay Power’s public positioning, key messages and a project communications strategy, as well as ongoing proactive media relations aligned to key milestones and to demonstrate urgency and need to key stakeholders.

Our government relations and strategic communications teams worked in tandem to align government-facing and public-facing messaging and objectives and partnered with Watay Power on engaging with the 22 First Nations communities and other key stakeholders to bring this project to fruition. This included supporting stakeholder events such as the multi-government, multi-community celebration that connected the first remote community to the provincial power grid in December 2018.

We also developed numerous brand videos and communications collateral, supported website content creation, and supported news conferences and media relations, leading to Watay Power being featured in various media stories across national, provincial and regional outlets, including CBC’s The National.

On January 8, 2020, Ukrainian Airlines flight PS752 was shot down in Tehran by the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps shortly after takeoff. All 176 passengers and crew aboard were killed, including 55 Canadians and 30 permanent residents. In their grief and as a means of advocating for their lost loved ones, the Association of the Families of PS752 Victims was founded on March 31st, 2020.

The group hired Sussex in the summer of 2020 to aid with their three founding priorities: aiding the families of those lost, honouring and preserving the memories of the victims and the pursuit of justice and accountability for the crime perpetrated by the Iranian regime. Sussex successfully built relationships between the Association and the Government of Canada at the highest echelons including the Prime Minister and his Office, Global Affairs Canada, Transport Canada, Public Safety Canada and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

Major milestones of the work have included the official designation of the IRGC, senior leadership and 10,000 ranking members to the country’s official terrorism designation under IRPA; the creation of a public resettlement policy offering permanent residence to family members of the victims in Canada; the official referral of the case to the International Court of Justice in conjunction with the Governments of Ukraine, United Kingdom and Sweden in June of 2023; and the successful planning and execution of a number of high profile public events including three anniversaries on January 8th 2021, 2022 and 2023 respectively, as well as rallies in conjunction with the Women, Life, Freedom movement.

Celestica, an advanced electronics manufacturer located in Toronto was embarking on a capital program at its flagship location at Don Mills and Eglinton. This capital program was necessary so that the manufacturer could become the first solar panel manufacturer producing these panels in Ontario (in line with an objective of the then-Green Energy Act). Celestica had an interest in securing an Ontario government grant, tied to the creation and/or retention of high-paying, skilled jobs.

Working with company officials, Sussex helped to write the business case, make the necessary applications, and lobby to secure approvals, including securing the then-Minister of the Environment as an internal government champion to help advance the client’s grant application. Celestica was awarded a $5.6 million grant by the Province of Ontario. As the company entered the next phase of its evolution, Sussex was asked to work on their behalf once again, in an effort to secure a similar grant. We once again assisted the client in all stages of applying for and securing the grant. A favourable decision was secured, with a new $5 million grant approved for the company.

Heart Valve Voice Canada is a not-for-profit patient advocacy group focused on increasing awareness of heart valve diseases and improving access to treatment for Canadian patients. The organization was launched in early 2018 with support from industry partners and in affiliation with similar heart valve patient organizations world-wide. Sussex continues to act as its Secretariat Support. A notable success involved our government relations, strategic communications, and digital advocacy teams working jointly to secure increased funding levels for a specific heart valve disease treatment called transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) in Ontario.

In 2017, OHIP was only funding approximately 800 TAVI procedures per year, limiting the minimally invasive alternative to open heart surgery largely for cost containment reasons. The procedure was being offered only to high-risk inoperable patients who were typically over 80 years of age and who would likely not survive open heart surgery. Our teams used data and experience from other jurisdictions to implement a comprehensive media relations, digital advocacy and government relations plan that mobilized 2.1 million patients, health providers, device manufacturers and people who care. Part of our work included interfacing with the Ministry of Health, Health Quality Ontario and OHTAC, valve manufacturers and CorHealth (the former Cardiac Care Network), the provincial agency responsible for planning and coordinating cardiac health care across the province.

This activity resulted in a 40% increase in funded procedures in the 2018 Ontario budget, and an additional 30% increase in 2019. In 2021, the funding level committed for TAVI has exceeded 2400 procedures, triple the 2017 total.

Sussex has provided government relations support to Sifton Properties since 2016. Sifton Properties is a leading developer of integrated residential neighbourhoods, commercial properties, retirement communities and residential rental properties. Specifically, we have supported government relations efforts around Sifton Properties’ West 5 project, a new net-zero energy 70-acre community development located on the west side of London. With support from our team, Sifton Properties grew the awareness of the West 5 project with relevant political and bureaucratic offices in Ontario. Building on these efforts, Sifton obtained the regulatory support it needed to enable the community net-metering structure that is necessary for such a net-zero project, the first of its kind in Ontario. This came in the form of a new regulation - Ontario Regulation 679/21 – Community Net Metering Projects, under which West 5 is the only listed demonstration project.