Case
Wellington partnered with a leading national pharmacy and healthcare retailer to improve access to healthcare while strengthening our partner’s reputation as a trusted, innovative delivery collaborator with government.
Wellington has supported several key initiatives that have expanded healthcare access in local communities while growing our partner’s market share.
Over the course of our partnership, Wellington has identified opportunities to position the retailer as a valued partner to governments nationwide by improving relationships with policymakers and communicating strategic narratives to align its services with government priorities in healthcare, affordability, and innovation.
Problem
Canada’s health policy landscape is complex and varied across jurisdictions.
At the federal level, the Liberal government prioritized affordability measures and faced pressures navigating pharmacare negotiations and maintaining spending commitments. At the provincial level, differing regulatory regimes across Canada stood in the way of our partner offering additional front line healthcare services to Canadians.
Value Creation
The company needed to strengthen relationships across multiple political parties, regulatory bodies, and stakeholder groups to protect its interests, secure procurement opportunities, and continue advancing its role in primary healthcare delivery.
To meet these needs, Wellington Advocacy supported the national pharmacy retailer with an integrated government relations and digital mobilization strategy across key jurisdictions.
In Ontario, the team held weekly strategy calls and provided ongoing tactical support to advance our partner’s priorities at Queen’s Park.
At the federal level, Wellington engaged with Members of Parliament and their staff to ensure our partner’s interests were represented in discussions on pharmacare and primary care expansion.
In Alberta, support expanded to include both strategic and day-to-day engagement, ensuring our partner’s objectives were consistently presented to the Premier’s Office, ministers, and senior officials.
Digital campaigns became an increasingly important tool to advance our partner’s interests. Wellington launched a targeted government relations and digital campaign to secure COVID-19 testing in pharmacies across Alberta and Ontario.
This effort generated more than eight million online impressions and 14,500 emails to government, resulting in an agreement to expand testing to local retail pharmacies.
Results/Impact
Expanded pharmacists’ scope of practice in Ontario
Secured an expansion of pharmacists’ scope of practice, enabling our partner to assess and prescribe for 14 additional ailments and to administer a broader range of publicly authorized vaccinations in Ontario. This improved patient access, reduced wait times, and strengthened its role in frontline care.
New government partnership secured
In parallel, thanks to our efforts, our partner scaled the province’s Menstrual Equity Initiative, providing more than 23 million free menstrual products to students, delivering measurable community impact and deepening trust with policymakers.
Enhanced viral testing capacities in Alberta
In Alberta, government engagement secured government approval for pharmacies to deploy COVID-19 testing, reducing patient backlogs and improving healthcare equity in local communities.
Long-term impact
By delivering strategic government relations tactics like stakeholder mapping, intelligence gathering, regulatory analysis, strategic communications, and digital mobilization campaigns, Wellington ensured our partner was engaged early in discussions, shaped policy changes, strengthened its profile as an essential healthcare partner with governments across Canada, and grew its market share.