Location: Toronto, Ontario
Employment type: Permanent, full time
This role is an opportunity to have a major impact in shaping climate and energy policy in Ontario.
As our Manager, Ontario Government Relations, you will be a key member of our team and will be integral to our efforts to advocate for low-carbon economic growth and climate policy across Canada.
This is a newly created role at Clean Prosperity, and an opportunity to join our Ontario government relations team, expanding our outreach, and increasing our effectiveness. If you’re the right candidate, you’ll be excited about the opportunity to be part of building up and advancing our Ontario advocacy.
At Clean Prosperity, our mission is to help Canada seize the opportunity in the low-carbon economy through policies that attract investment and create jobs, reduce emissions, enhance energy security, and maintain affordability for Canadians. Getting the balance right across these objectives is important to ensure that the solutions we advocate for are evidence based and politically durable. Your focus in this role will be centered on advocacy promoting the importance of industrial carbon markets, how Ontario should approach decarbonizing our electricity sector, and other timely policies that will help decarbonize the province.
We are passionate about what we do and we are looking for a smart, ambitious person to join our team.
Clean Prosperity is committed to diversity in its hiring processes. We welcome applications from members of visible minorities, First Nations, Métis, Inuit, persons with disabilities, and anyone else with the skills and knowledge to help provide a diverse range of perspectives.
The Role
The Manager, Ontario Government Relations will play a key role in expanding the impact of our Ontario government relations at Queen’s Park and our stakeholder relations across Ontario. Equally, the role is envisioned on occasion contributing to organization-wide policy objectives, such as advancing our advocacy federally and across Canada.
This role will report to the Director for Ontario, and will work closely with members of our cross-Canada team.
Key Responsibilities
Below is a list of key responsibilities currently envisioned for this role. We are a fast-paced organization with evolving priorities so these responsibilities may change. As the team finds its groove, we anticipate these responsibilities will be refined between you and the Director for Ontario:
Government Relations:
- Support the team in relationship-building efforts and engagements with relevant Ontario officials — including MPPs, political staff, and departmental staff — regarding climate, low-carbon economic growth and nuclear energy policy.
- Monitor, and provide advice on, government briefings, political developments, committee hearings, and related events.
- Draft formal communications to government, including submitting feedback as part of government consultations, pre-budget submissions, and policy memos.
- Represent Clean Prosperity at government and stakeholder briefings, hearings, and related events.
- Undertake similar activities to the above with relevant staff from all political parties.
Stakeholder relations:
- Identify and engage other stakeholders who will be influential on topics related to our policy agenda with a particular focus on building strong relationships with the business and investor communities.
- Attend, and present at, relevant events, such as conferences, forums, and conventions, on topics of interest to the organization.
- Draft compelling presentation decks that help us persuade policymakers, funders, and other stakeholders.
- Plan and implement stakeholder engagement events, occasionally alongside partner organizations.
Media Relations:
- Support the production of a range of different content, from op-eds to issue briefs to blog posts.
- Work closely with our communications team to pitch Clean Prosperity’s policy messages to the Ontario government, opposition, media, and related stakeholders.
- Handle administrative and logistical activities related to the media release of policy reports, research papers, and other external-facing documents.
Policy Research & Development:
- While we do have staff dedicated to deeper policy research, you will be required to develop sufficient technical expertise to help prepare briefings on our policy priorities, including writing and editing reports. You may also be asked, from time-to-time, to undertake modest research assignments on questions of policy.
In addition to the responsibilities described above, you will contribute to other organizational priorities from time-to-time.
Skills/Experience Needed
The below list represents our ideal set of qualifications. We encourage you to apply if most of these are a fit, even if there are one or two that aren’t:
- Bachelor’s degree and at least 5 years of relevant work experience.
- Significant experience (3 years minimum, ideally more) in either a policy role within government and/or conducting government relations.
- Superb people skills — you must be able to build relationships quickly, work with people across the political spectrum, and find common ground with those who disagree with you.
- Great storytelling skills — you must be able to take complex, technical topics and turn them into compelling narratives that resonate with elected officials.
- Baseline understanding of the Canadian climate and energy policy landscape, (deeper understanding is a bonus) and a belief that Canada should strive to reach net-zero by 2050.
- Experience engaging and persuading external stakeholders (policymakers, business leaders, community leaders, or similar influential stakeholders).
- Ability to work independently and effectively.
- Ability to adapt in a fast-paced and quickly changing environment.
- Excellent communication and writing skills.
- Experience synthesizing research, writing briefing notes, and presenting findings and recommendations.
- Basic comfort in reviewing and interpreting academic policy reports.
- Legally eligible to work in Canada.
Location, hours, and culture
We are a small and tight-knit team who support each other’s work, every day. Our team comes from a very diverse range of backgrounds and experiences, and we bring those perspectives and experiences to every effort, making all our work better in the process.
All of our team works remotely from home. We anticipate you being located in Toronto, so you can easily get to meetings with parliamentarians and government officials. We keep standard working hours, but are much more concerned about results than about how you organize your time. We are a people-focused organization: staff have flexibility in how they schedule their working hours.
Even though we’re remote, you will interact regularly with the team. We hold weekly virtual staff meetings, virtual hangouts, and in-person retreats twice a year, for which you may be required to travel.
Compensation
We’re seeking someone who can fill a vital role in Toronto. While we are a nonprofit, most of our staff come from the private sector and we intend to pay a competitive salary. We understand this is an important consideration for any applicant and we will discuss salary during our first discussion with you.
How to apply
Please send an email to ManagerON@cleanprosperity.ca with subject line “Application for Manager, Ontario Government Relations ” that includes:
- Your resume.
- A cover letter that explains why you want to work with us, why you’d be a good fit, and something that you’re passionate about outside of work (e.g. a hobby, a favourite place you like to go, or whatever makes you smile when you’re not in the office).
IMPORTANT NOTE: The screening, interviewing, and hiring of applications will all be done by humans. We aren’t looking for a key-word list in your submission – we want to know YOU. As such, please ensure your application is also written by a human. Thanks!
Photo credit: Maia C