CESA Member of Parliament Campaign
We continue to make great progress towards defining ‘The Ask’ and informing the appropriate people of our situation. In fact, we have a second call scheduled next week with the Assistant Deputy Minister, Sport, Major Events and Commemorations. These calls are only part of our strategy to engage all levels of government so they hear our story. This is where you come in and could be the difference between receiving funding and not receiving funding.
We need all race directors at the grass roots level to explain the plight of our industry to your local Member of Parliament.
To that end please help us help you by doing the following:
Review this site to find your Canadian Members of Parliament: https://www.ourcommons.ca/members/en/search
Find the 3-5 MPs in your area and send them an email requesting a call
It is very important that you familiarize yourself with the Power Point presentation and that you walk through it on your call. Simply sending it to your Member of Parliament will not be as affective as the personal touch. We can tell you the calls we’ve had to date have been fruitful, FUN, and enlightening
The deck can be accessed here - Endurance Sports Presentation
The script is below.
Please CC board@endruancesportsalliance.ca when emailing your Member of Parliament
Many of you have asked how you can help. Aside from reaching out to MPs, we need members to step up and contribute financially. We cannot lose momentum at this point. It is CRUCIAL that we have your help. We need you to either becoming a paying member and/or contribute the most you can so that we can present our case to the government.
We need your support. We need you to believe in what we are trying to accomplish on your behalf. Please review the options using the link below and let us know if you have any questions.
https://raceroster.com/events/2020/32578/canadian-endurance-sport-alliance-cesa-memberships
Thank you for your continued support. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.
CESA Board
Script for meeting with MPs
It’s a pleasure to meet you and discuss the impact of COVID-19 on my (race/company).
About my organization (# of employees in region, # of events per year, # of participants per event, $ donated to charity, any other positive stat to give).
Give an antidote about your company or event. (“last year this happened.....”)
Talk about impact of COVID-19:
ex: We were supposed to run a 2-day event for 5000 people in May but quickly had to cancel our event due to social distancing regulations. This has forced me to not hire #### people and I needed to let ### people go (if applicable). ### people were supposed to participate in our event but we have to either refund or defer all payments. We also lost sponsorship revenue.
I am grateful to have received the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA)/Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS)/ Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance (CECRA) but this will not be enough for me to remain operational and there is a serious chance I will be forced to shut down entirely without government support. This is true across our entire industry, with events and companies like mine from coast to coast are under an extraordinary amount of stress.
I utilize CEBA, CEWS, and the rent subsidy but that may not be enough to keep my organization afloat for the next year. We are especially worried as Dr. Tam suggested that the social distancing regulations will likely remain in place until 2022.
Normally at this time we would start planning next years events and open registration. We are now seriously considering shutting down for good.
We are members of the recently created Canadian Endurance Sports Alliance (CESA). In less than two months, CESA have seen 150 organizations representing nearly 5-Million competitors sign on to the association. The endurance events CESA represent span events for walking, running, triathlon, cycling, skiing and more and industry uniquely spans areas such as culture, leisure, tourism, research, charitable, consumer products, and small business. While I need $$$ per month to remain viable, CESA members require anywhere from $200 to $200,000 per month to not shut down.
CESA leadership is engaging with key ministers and ministerial staff to request emergency funding to support event companies like mine. We would greatly appreciate if you could personally raise the possibility of funding for our organization with Ministers Guilbeault, Joly, and Freeland. We are hopeful that our quiet engagement with these ministers and others will enable funding to flow to us and CESA members across the country.
I would be pleased to meet with you again or participate in any panels you are hosting regarding reviving the economy in our region.
Please let me know how I can be of assistance to you at this time and I look forward to speaking again soon.
