CFLA Federal Advocacy Day a Resounding Success
CFLA Staff - April 25, 2024 - Featured Content Area
CFLA delegation, last week, travelled to Ottawa for the Association’s yearly Advocacy Day.
The team included Michael Rothe (President & CEO), Marcel Buerkler (Director of Policy), Howard Cobham (Chair of the Board), and Julie Gingras (Board Member).
Over the course of a day and a half, we met with ten Members of Parliament and Senators, as well as representatives of several government ministries. A reception on Thursday night provided further opportunity to network with parliamentarians and staff across the political spectrum.
The CFLA team discussed three key policy priorities in those meetings:
- How our industry can help re-energize productivity in the Canadian economy by increasing capital access for SMEs and start-ups;
- How a focus on enforcement can help stop the illegal export of stolen vehicles, and
- How exempting lenders of medical devices from obtaining a medical device licence can foster innovation and competition in the marketplace.
The Ottawa Advocacy Day also provided an excellent opportunity to familiarize federal policymakers with asset-backed financing and leasing and emphasize our industry's outsized impact. After all, we collectively support 285,000 Canadian jobs and contribute 1.4% to the national GDP.