Sep 27 2022 — Kathryn May — Policy Options — The return-to-work pushback of Canada’s public servants could lay the groundwork for the most radical change in the federal government’s relationship with its employees in a century. The resistance reveals a grassroots shift taking place in the public service that’s all about power and control. The public service is one of the most hierarchical employers […]
Sep 26 2022 — Gillian Petit, Lindsay Tedds, and Jennifer Robson — Policy Options — Following months of pressure from the federal NDP, the Trudeau government has finally announced three targeted measures to offer relief to lower-income Canadians. Key among these is that the goods and services (GST) tax credit will be doubled for six months in a bid to support the people most affected by rising prices. Both the […]
Sep 22 2022 — Rachel Samson — Policy Options — Demand for liquefied natural gas is high, but governments should be wary about risking taxpayer dollars on an uncertain future. With oil and gas prices skyrocketing because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, there has been renewed excitement about the potential for liquefied natural gas (LNG) production in Canada. There have also been calls for the […]
Sep 20 2022 — Kathryn May — Policy Options — Neither all-office nor all-work-from-home is the answer, says Janice Charette. The Privy Council Office will work in the office two days a week. Canada’s top bureaucrat set the tone for the future of work in the federal bureaucracy recently by asking employees in the powerful Privy Council Office to come to the office two days […]
Sep 19 2022 — Joshua Medicoff and Daniel Béland — Policy Options — Conflict is a hallmark of the relationship between the provinces and the federal government in Canada. That much we know. But considerably less discussion is taking place about the numerous conflicts between provinces and municipalities, which have been “creatures of the provinces” since the British North America Act/Constitution Act, 1867. In Quebec, and in particular […]
Aug 25 2022 — Andrew Perez — Policy Options — On Sept. 10, the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) will announce the results of the mail-in balloting to choose a new permanent leader to replace Erin O’Toole, who was dismissed in February when a majority of Conservative MPs delivered a stinging rebuke to his fleeting tenure as party leader. O’Toole’s brusque ouster was unprecedented: 62 […]
Aug 18 2022 — Kyra Keer, Kayla Benjamin and Roma Dhamanaskar — Policy Options — The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade – an attack on the rights of women and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people who can get pregnant in America – has sent shockwaves of fear and grief across the globe. Nearly half of all states have laws that can restrict access to legal abortions with 13 having […]
Aug 16 2022 — Kate Puddister and Danielle McNabb — Policy Options — Policing in Canada is bound by the rule of law – the same rules apply to police and the policed alike. When police act (or appear to act) outside the limits of the law, community trust and the legitimacy of the police can be strained. When police-public interactions result in death or brutality, confidence in […]
Aug 15 2022 — Nakia Lee-Foon — Policy Options — COVID-19 was always going to be inequitable as many Canadian health-care systems failed to learn from previous pandemics. As a result, they didn’t implement equitable practices, which helped ensure inequities would occur in this pandemic. Take, for example, an Ontario study that found hospitalized individuals during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic were more likely to have […]
Aug 12 2022 — Malika Asthana — Policy Options — Rising inflation. Increasing fuel costs. Supply chain backlogs. The list of issues facing businesses in 2022 is growing and while these challenges require solutions, the reality is they’re also adding to problems that already exist. Take for instance the growing talent gap – the distance between the skills that employees have and those they want […]
Aug 11 2022 — Mark Winfield — Policy Options — Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives went into the 2018 Ontario election campaign promising, among other things, to fix the province’s “hydro mess.” In practice, fixing the hydro “mess” turned out to be a lot more complicated than it sounded. In the end, the first Ford government did little more than double down on its Liberal predecessor’s […]
Jul 21 2022 — Kathryn May — Policy Options — Canada’s top bureaucrat wants public servants back in the office part-time this summer to test drive running federal departments with a hybrid workforce. Privy Council Clerk Janice Charette recently wrote to deputy ministers calling on them to use the summer to experiment with hybrid work so their departments are ready for a full implementation by […]
Jul 14 2022 — Katłįà (Catherine) Lafferty — Policy Options — Home is where the heart is. It is where life begins. Home should be a place of safety, love, health, security, happiness and respect in kinship with one another. But housing in so-called Canada is anything but what a home should be. Canada’s government-funded housing system has interfered with customary Indigenous practices. It starts at […]
Jun 29 2022 — Kathryn May — Policy Options — Delivering services to Canadians has been an Achilles heel of the federal government for 30 years because of political disinterest and a senior management of “travelling salesmen,” who hop from job to job and barely know the business of the departments they lead, says the former senior bureaucrat who proposed the creation of Service Canada.
Jun 22 2022 — Policy Options — In a previous article, we demonstrated that Quebecers are generally more pessimistic about the state of the French language than they were 20 or 30 years ago, even if they tend to be a little more confident economically. This perception may be related to another remarkable trend that emerges when we look at the evolution of […]