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Question:

How do you gain the support of community members and stakeholders in the face of private interest groups who have mounted a sophisticated advocacy campaign against your organization aimed at destroying the viability of your corporation?

Answer:

You recommend a Community Liaison Forum (CLF) process designed to be open and transparent to the entire community. The CLF process does not treat any one special interest group as more important than the entire community - the idea being that while a special interest group may vocalize community concern in some form and at some level, they, in and of themselves, do not actually represent the community in the broad perspective. The open forum provides Cameco with an opportunity to correct misinformation that has been floating around in the public for an extended period of time.

Result:

Through the CLF process along with continual government relations activities, support for Cameco in Port Hope rose from a low 66%to 83%. A substantial shift in media coverage also took place. With 77%of the news items being either neutral or positive with negative items dropping to a low 23%.