Earlier this week, the Manitoba Budget 2026 was released. Within hours, the messages started coming in.

“What does this mean for us?”
“Is this good news?”
“Where do we fit in this?”

If you work in a non-profit, an association, or any organization that depends on government alignment, this moment will feel familiar. A major government document is released, and suddenly everyone is looking for answers.

But here’s the challenge. Most organizations are asking the wrong question. The issue is not what the budget says. The issue is how we interpret what government is actually signalling. 

Government is not vague; it’s speaking a different language

I often hear leaders describe government as vague, opaque, or unclear. And I understand why. Documents like budgets, throne speeches, and mandate letters rarely say anything directly. They are carefully written, often deliberately broad, and rarely provide the kind of clarity that organizations are looking for.

So the conclusion becomes: government is unclear.

But that’s not quite right.

Government is not unclear by accident. It communicates in a different way. It communicates through signals. Those signals are embedded not just in what is written, but in what is emphasized, what is omitted, what is repeated, and when something shows up at all.

A line in a budget matters. But so does the absence of a line.

A commitment in a throne speech matters. But so does whether it also appears in a mandate letter.

Most organizations are trying to read these documents as if they are instruction manuals. They are not. They are pieces of a much larger system.

The system behind the signals

To understand what government is actually telling you, you need to understand the system it operates within. Government is not a series of isolated announcements and vague signals. It is a series of overlapping cycles that shape what is possible at any given time.

Budgeting does not begin with the budget. It begins months earlier, in the late summer, with early signals showing up in the fall Speech from the Throne. Those signals are then refined, tested, negotiated, and ultimately confirmed in the spring budget. But that is only one part of the system.

At the same time:

• Program delivery authority begins to move in the spring, with pressure to implement before the summer.
• There is another push in early fall as government starts prepare for the next cycle
• A financial push occurs between January and March to ensure allocated dollars are actually spent

Alongside this is the equally confusing legislative cycle. Proposed legislation is introduced, debated, amended, and passed through multiple readings. Public consultation may occur at multiple stages. Final proclamation is required for the legislations to take effect, but it is rarely fixed in advance. The timing of proclamation is often strategic and held until the moment is right.

And on top of this sits the election cycle. Where we are in that cycle changes everything. As we approach the final year of Manitoba's current NDP mandate, you will see a shift:

• Increased urgency to pass legislation
• Greater focus on implementing visible program and policy changes
• A stronger emphasis on demonstrating results

In practical terms, this is the pre-election report card. And that matters, because timing within this system affects:

• What gets prioritized and which files move forward
• The willingness of departments to collaborate
• The openness of Ministers to engage in discussions 

This is why the same organization can bring forward equally strong ideas at different times and get very different responses. It is not just about the idea. It is about timing, alignment, and understanding where government is in its cycle.

Where most organizations get stuck

When organizations look at a budget, they are often trying to answer a simple question: Where do we fit?

And from there, they move quickly to action:

• Draft a position
• Request a meeting
• Refine their messaging
• Consider hiring someone to advocate on their behalf

But this is where a critical misstep often happens. Government relations becomes something external, transactional, something that can be outsourced.

In my experience, for most organizations, that is not the most effective approach - especially in provinces like Manitoba, where relationships matter deeply. In places like this (though this isn't the case in every jurisdiction), there is real value in having your organization be the face of your relationship with government. Not an intermediary, not a third party, not an advocage, but you. That's because relationships are not just about access. They are about credibility, consistency, and trust built over time.

But that raises a more important question: If you are going to own those relationships, what do you actually need to know to be effective?

What it takes to Be effective

Government is complex. Even people who work within it do not always see the full picture. To navigate it effectively, organizations need more than a well-written briefing note or a strong elevator pitch.

They need to understand:

• How decisions are actually made
• Who matters, and when they matter
• How information moves through the system
• Where influence sits, formally and informally
• How to interpret both action and inaction

Because in government, inaction is also a signal. So is delay, silence, and responsibility for a file being moved to another department.

Without that understanding, organizations are often left reacting. They are throwing darts in the dark and hoping something lands.

But once they have that understanding, something shifts. They start to see patterns, anticipate movement, and recognize where there is real opportunity. And importantly, they begin to see what I often call the “sweet spots.” These are the moments where priorities align within or across departments - where legislation, policy, and timing create space for something to move forward. It's that moment where a file that once felt stuck suddenly has traction.

The emergence of those moments are rarely obvious from a single document; it's only when you understand the system as a whole that you can start to predict their appearance. 

A different approach: building internal capacity

This is where our work tends to focus. In building my business around the strengths that I and my team of deeply experienced practitioners bring, I made a choice in how we approach work that has a government relations component.

We do not act as government relations representatives on behalf of organizations. Instead, we help organizations build the internal capacity to do this work themselves.

Recently, we worked with the Nature Conservancy of Canada on a project focused on their priorities within Manitoba. They came to the work looking for tools. They wanted to understand how to advocate for a set of specific priorities, how to position their work, and move their files forward.

To start, we conducted a deep dive analysis of the departments and legislation connected to their priorities. We looked at policies, strategies, and the broader machinery of government. We developed a stakeholder map to clarify who is who, and who matters when it comes to getting decisions moving. And we facilitated a prioritization session to help them focus their efforts and help us refine specific engagement tools tohelp them advance their priorities.

But what stands out to me about that work is not the tools that we developed. It's what happened within the team.

The most significant outcome was not a document or a framework, but was the shared understanding that developed across the organization - not just within the people responsible for government relations, but across a broader group of team members who find themselves interacting with government officials and other stakeholders.

They began to understand how government actually works, how decisions get made, and how different parts of the system connect.

And that really matters, because government relations should not sit with one person or one function. It should be supported by a broader organizational understanding of how the system works and how the organization fits within it. Whether team members are engaging directly with government officials or not, when they understand more about the system, they do a better job in preparing their leaders, who will engage with government officials, to be aligned and prepared to advocate effectively. 

What success actually looks like

When we do this work well, we believe the outcome should never be dependency on us. In fact, we work to achieve is the opposite. We don't want our clients reliant on us to always interpret government. I want to share our knowledge to help them do that work themselves. 

We find it extremely rewarding when we help our clients build a foundation of knowledge that they can carry forward. The best moments are when a client reaches out months after we have worked with them to share that they were able to move the needle on their own.

Of course we love hearing from them, and will be always be here if they need help with advice to help them advance new priorities or address really sticky challenges. But we love it when the next budget or throne speech is released, and we see their priorities coming to life without us - because they built on the foundation of the capacity we helped them grow:

• They can interpret signals more confidently.
• They can adapt as the environment changes.
• They can refine their approach over time.

If I had to define success in the simplest terms, it would be this: They feel like they’ve got it. They understand enough to move forward with confidence. And they can continue to evolve their approach without relying on us to tell them what something means.

Back to the budget

So when a budget is released, and you think: “What does this mean for us?”, I want to remind you that the answer is not found in a single line item or a single paragraph.8  It is found in how that document fits within the broader system - what signals are being reinforced, what priorities are gaining momentum, what is absent, and what the timing suggests about what comes next

Budgets, throne speeches, and mandate letters are not instruction manuals. They are signals. And the organizations that benefit most are not the ones who react the fastest. They are the ones who understand the system well enough to interpret those signals and act with intention.

If you are working in an organization that has a complicated relationship with government and you need to understand it better, I welcome the opportunity to connect.

You can book a time to talk or send me a note. I love learning about the work that organizations are doing and the challenges they are navigating as they try to move their priorities forward.