Exit Memo: Senior Policy Analyst

We asked members of the Apolitical Community to write a prospective “exit memo” for their role. This increases visibility of the different kinds of work being done across government.

**Your job title: **Senior Policy Analyst

How would you describe your job to a friend?

I work on a range of issues and files related to the approval of drugs and medical devices in Canada, as well as ensuring the quality, safety and efficacy of food and natural health products. More specifically, my job is to prepare briefing materials, speaking points and other materials like Q&As and PowerPoint presentations for senior officials to clearly communicate the work within the department or policy direction. I also work on Cabinet documents, such as new legislation and regulation, and respond to ministerial mandate commitments.

What are your daily/weekly/monthly responsibilities?

Working in "strategic horizontal policy", my responsibilities require coordinating information across the whole branch and supporting the Assistant Deputy Minister's Office. The priorities and responsibilities can change from week to week, but are usually related to hot issues. During the pandemic it has involved monitoring committee meetings and drafting speaking points on drug, vaccine and PPE approvals. I also work on corporate reporting and support transition planning, such as developing briefing binders for a new minister.

What does your successor need to know to succeed?

The best way to describe the necessary skillset is to have knowledge that is a mile wide and an inch deep. The work is fast paced and requires being able to process a lot of (new) information and distill it down into key messages. This can be challenging because new issues arise and you may have short timelines to compile a response and validate with experts in different programmes.

Strong written and oral communication skills are key and knowledge of a variety of issues can support you in your learning curve. It also helps to have good people skills to build relationships with people throughout the organisation to answer the many questions and problems you're asked to solve. The reward is having tonnes of interesting facts like why you can't create a generic version of a COVID vaccine, the importance of clinical trials to ensure medications are safe, how to support open science, and collaboration in pharmaceutical research and development.

What are some current projects you're working on?

• Communicating the regulatory approach to authorising drugs for rare diseases in the development of a national strategy for high cost drugs for rare diseases
• Monitoring the Standing Committee on Health's study of the federal COVID-19 response
• Drafting speaking points for the Chief Medical Officer and Assistant Deputy Minister
• Developing post-election briefing materials in preparation for a new government or minister

Want to increase visibility for your work, and help colleagues learn about your role? Inform the Apolitical community and submit your own exit memo here.