To support the RMA’s vison of strong, vibrant rural communities, a role of the association is to champion and advocate on municipal and rural issues. Though the majority of RMA’s advocacy focus is at the provincial level, federal advocacy is a growing priority. As a result of the 2019 federal election, Alberta has been left without a single representative within the federal governing party and this has increased the need for RMA to invest in direct federal advocacy. At the same time, RMA members have become increasingly focused on federal issues and their impacts on Alberta’s rural municipalities.
To address the need for RMA to become more directly engaged in federal issues, RMA is seeking a consultant to serve as our contact and facilitator in Ottawa, and to support the development of our internal federal advocacy capacity.
This role could include (but not necessarily be limited) to the following:
• Coordinating meetings between the RMA and key federal representatives and decision-makers to deal with issues identified by RMA membership as a priority.
• Providing advice to the RMA board and staff on advocacy approaches on RMA federal priority issues.
• Identifying potential items of interest in advance based on RMA federal advocacy priorities to support policy development and engagement.
• Supporting RMA in the development of federal advocacy materials.
RMA staff will be responsible for preparing all written submissions and briefings for federal advocacy (but may collaborate with the consultant for support during this process).
The RMA Board has chosen four priority issues to focus RMA federal advocacy efforts on (note these priority issues are reviewed regularly by RMA and may change periodically):
• Market Access for Western Canadian Energy and Agriculture
• Rural Broadband
• Infrastructure Funding and Disaster Mitigation
• Rail Grade Crossings
RMA is interested in better understanding what services or supports a consultant could offer to assist RMA in increasing its federal advocacy efforts and presence in Ottawa. RMA welcomes interested proponents to provide an example of pricing and/or rates for your services.
