Sep 19 2023 — Rachel Samson — Policy Options — The ongoing affordability crisis has brought into sharp focus the need for fairness and justice when it comes to the economic and societal transformations that will be required to achieve climate goals. Governments do need to act on the affordability issue. But backtracking on climate policies is not the answer. Putting off emission reductions and […]
Sep 13 2023 — Zach Paikin — Policy Options — China’s rise and the return of war to Europe have cast doubt on whether the West still has the capacity to shape world affairs to its liking. The failure to rally greater support for Ukraine among the Global South, together with the recent expansion of the BRICS grouping, points to the gradual emergence of a […]
Sep 11 2023 — Louise Blais — Policy Options — Among Canadian foreign-policy watchers, it has become a cliché to say that Canada has lost influence on the world stage. So much so that this reality, which should otherwise be shocking and distressing, has been instead quietly accepted as a fact, even inside “Fort Pearson” (a.k.a. Global Affairs Canada headquarters). How did we get here? […]
Sep 7 2023 — Kathryn May — Policy Options — On paper, Canada’s public service can handily find billions of dollars in spending cuts. The big question is when the real work will begin for a Liberal government that has no stomach for slashing programs or reforming how government works. Departments are racing to meet Treasury Board President Anita Anand’s Oct. 2 deadline for $15.4 […]
Sep 6 2023 — Policy Options — Canada needs more housing – especially affordable rental housing. This is the message from commentators such as Carolyn Whitzman and reports by the National Housing Accord and others on the housing crisis.
Sep 5 2023 — Samantha McAleese — Policy Options — More than four million people in Canada have a criminal record and face poorer social and economic outcomes because of the ongoing stigma associated with past convictions. These people should not get lost in the wake of a significant cabinet shuffle that unfolded in July with the naming of Dominic LeBlanc as Canada’s new minister […]
Jul 19 2023 — Peter Graefe and Nicole Fiorillo — Policy Options — If the Liberals want to continue to innovate on social issues, they must be careful not to turn the provinces into adversaries. When Justin Trudeau came to power in 2015 with a stack of social policy promises, he faced a problem: how to deliver on these promises in areas where the provinces held the constitutional […]
Jul 5 2023 — Monica Gattinger and Nik Nanos — Policy Options — Canadians care about climate change but are deeply concerned about energy affordability as the country pushes to expand electricity use. Many governments across Canada promote electrification as their main strategy to pursue greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. This makes good sense. Canada has a very clean grid. Eighty-three per cent of electricity produced is already […]
Jun 28 2023 — Kathryn May — Policy Options — Janice Charette left the job as Canada’s top bureaucrat stressing that the public service must turn its attention to “organizational health” so it can manage in a world seemingly gone haywire with one crisis on top of another. Charette, who retired last week as clerk of the Privy Council Office, called organizational health the “new […]
Jun 9 2023 — Lori Turnbull — Policy Options — During the COVID-19 emergency, our governing institutions – including Parliament, cabinet, federalism and the public service – were more responsive than they typically are. As a result, public trust was high. Once the pandemic hit in earnest, a new cabinet committee was formed to co-ordinate the federal government’s response. The Canada Emergency Response Benefit Act […]
Jun 7 2023 — Kennedy Stewart — Policy Options — COVID-19 was a tough stress test for Canada’s federal system of government. Our largest cities continue to suffer significant pandemic-related economic and social damage, in part due to provincial governments sweeping constitutional responsibilities they wish to avoid onto municipalities. These “creatures of the province” have become rugs provinces use to hide their problems. COVID-19 lifted […]
Jun 5 2023 — Policy Options — Decarbonizing buildings is a necessary step to achieve net-zero emissions. Countries that take climate change seriously are introducing clean-heating requirements. Stand-alone fossil fuel heating systems will no longer be installed as early as 2024 in Germany and 2026 in the Netherlands. In Canada, the federal government has for decades ratcheted up the requirements for the […]
Jun 2 2023 — Michael Kempa — Policy Options — Two reports dropped within six weeks of each other revealed deep systemic failures in Canadian policing that go back half a century. The report of the Public Order Emergency Commission (POEC) provides the framework for bringing Canada’s long-ailing policing system back from its collapse under the weight of the 2022 occupation of Ottawa. It should […]
May 31 2023 — Kathryn May — Policy Options — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has left many tongues wagging in the nation’s capital in picking a new top bureaucrat with a résumé out of step with that of previous public-service bosses but one that aligns with the thorny issues dogging the government in the run-up to the next election. John Hannaford, the deputy minister at […]
May 23 2023 — Policy Options — Discussions of how Canadians view their federation inevitably zero in on regional differences. Western Canadians are alienated, Quebecers are nationalist, Atlantic Canadians feel overlooked and Ontarians are more or less oblivious. The terms we use to describe these different outlooks – discontent, anger, resentment – may vary. But the unit of analysis remains constant: region. […]