CGA and Government Advocacy

The CGA Executive Committee recently approved guidelines for CGA to engage in advocacy initiatives with international, federal, provincial, state, local and tribal governments in support of CGA members and in furtherance of the CGA mission. While CGA’s Bylaws have always allowed for advocacy activities, the Executive Committee’s action to create guidelines made clear that advocacy and outreach need to be a higher priority. CGA and its members will benefit from discussions with policymakers and legislators at all levels of government.

During the pandemic issues arose that put our industry’s products in the public eye like never before: availability of CO2 for food and beverage processing, as well as dry ice for keeping vaccines cold; and the availability of medical oxygen, the number one treatment for COVID-19 are just two examples. As CGA staff and members talked with various branches of the government, it became clear that our standing as “the invisible industry” was actually working against us. We were spending precious time talking about the very basics of the industry before we could talk about the critical issues at hand, such as oxygen availability. The industrial, medical and food gas industry provides many benefits to society, yet many people – policy makers included – have little or no idea that we exist.

Advocacy, or lobbying as it is commonly known, often gets a bad rap – sometimes deservedly so.  But at its core, advocacy is simply educating the government about our industry and our products. This allows policy makers and legislators to make informed decisions about the issues that come before them.

The CGA guidelines for lobbying are designed to ensure that we do not damage our excellent technical credibility as we advocate. For example, the guidelines state that CGA will “Prioritize advocacy initiatives that advance the core principles of the CGA as laid out in our mission statement: