Building a policy school that has real social impact
McGill University recently launched a new school of public policy, with $10 million donated by the Max Bell Foundation. The school aims to serve as a forum for mobilizing...
Promote good governance but nix the word “democracy”
At the beginning of January, the Globe and Mail columnist and author Doug Saunders urged Canada to renew its efforts in global “democracy export.” He was alarmed not simply...
Budget 2018 analysis live from the lockup
What were the highlights of the 2018 federal budget? Policy Options Editor-in-Chief Jennifer Ditchburn, IRPP Research Director Colin Busby and Jennifer Robson, assistant professor of political management at Carleton...
Make spousal sponsorships work to reunite families
On February 14, 2018, Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), announced that the processing time for spousal sponsorship applications had been reduced from 26 months...
Cluster development will make us global leaders
While the world focuses on “whither Amazon HQ2,” the federal government has made a far more important and long-lasting decision about the future of clusters in Canada. Clusters are...
Shedding light on confusion around AI and work
Recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) — and particularly machine learning (ML) — are impressive, and there is increasing awareness of the potential impacts of these new technologies on...
Toward a détente with Saskatchewan’s teachers
So Saskatchewan has a new premier, and with him a new minister of education, Gord Wyant. Only last fall, Wyant was the new premier’s competitor in a campaign to...
Trump’s economics on NAFTA are not all wrong
In a recent interview, Steve Bannon — Donald Trump’s onetime campaign strategist — outlined his political thinking in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. After Mitt Romney lost...
An end to taxpayer-funded subsidies, under NAFTA
When Amazon announced last year that it was seeking proposals from North American cities interested in being the base for the company’s second headquarters, politicians across the continent were...
Using emissions intensity to price CO2 emissions
In January, as part of the federal government’s emissions reduction program, Environment and Climate Change Canada announced that it would be imposing a carbon pricing system on any province...
Un débat des chefs qui inclut les minorités francophones
Selon sa lettre de mandat, la ministre des Institutions démocratiques Karina Gould doit mener à terme un processus de consultation en vue de la création d’un poste de commissaire...
Good reviews (mostly) for the National Housing Strategy
When it comes to housing strategies, the Liberal Party giveth, taketh away and giveth again. In 1973, then Liberal minister of urban affairs Ron Basford launched major reforms to...
Judicial reviews of political party decisions
From local nomination battles through to party leadership races, the process of political parties choosing candidates or leaders is often contentious. Patrick Brown might easily have wound up facing...
AI on a social mission
Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to be human rights’ best advocate and its worst enemy. Either it can help us reach the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or,...
Productivity and the performing arts
Many Canadians are pinning their hopes on the success of Justin Trudeau’s innovation agenda. There’s a good reason why. Canada is a laggard in productivity growth, making this the...
A place for Indigenous peoples on Canada’s top bench
As a young Indigenous child growing up in East Vancouver, I would not have thought that one day I would attend a celebration of the swearing-in of a new...
Gerald Stanley and the castle narrative
A complex narrative has emerged in defence of Gerald Stanley, who was recently acquitted of second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Colten Boushie, a 22 year-old Cree man,...
Personal drones, AI and our privacy
Imagine sitting in your backyard and seeing a drone fly overhead. It hovers. The camera mounted underneath adjusts and seems to be looking at you. As quickly as it...
The Caricaturing of UN Peacekeeping
Peter MacKay has written a provocative and useful Policy Options article about the dark side of peacekeeping. While he is mostly wrong on many levels, we should be indebted...
L’éthique animale va-t-elle sauver les robots ?
Il y a quelques mois, l’Arabie saoudite accordait la citoyenneté à Sofia, un robot humanoïde doté d’une intelligence artificielle (IA) lui permettant de converser — plus ou moins bien...
Is experimentation just the latest policy buzzword?
The term experimentation in the public policy context can sometimes have a negative connotation – bringing to mind everything from uncertainty and risk to failed social experiments. But experimentation...
Make trade work for women
Critics have not been kind to Canada’s efforts to link trade relations to action on gender equality, workers’ rights and environmental sustainability, which have been dismissed as naïve, arrogant...
How can Indigenous knowledge shape our view of AI?
The words we use to describe reality are not without consequence. They express how we define our realities and, as a result, how we express our values. When we...
Look to the Commonwealth to diversify trade
These are turbulent times for international trade, with an America-first president threatening to rip up NAFTA, a UK that is leaving the European Union, and a general sense of...
The real “justice” denied to Boushie
Colten Boushie died without justice, but it is also true that he lived without justice. The bulk of public attention has focused on the last moments of the young...
Who benefits from accessible infrastructure?
It’s been a long time coming, but the federal government is expected to unveil national accessibility laws this spring. Similar legislation in other jurisdictions, such as the Americans with...
Development assistance and violence against women
Canada’s report to Parliament for 2016-17 on what’s known as official development assistance, or ODA, is a 146-page tome about the government’s commitment to the world’s poor. According to...
Environmental assessment Bill is a lost opportunity
Windows of opportunity for transformative change are rare and can close suddenly. The saga of Bill C-69 is a case in point. The Trudeau government swept into power with...
Revoir le financement public des écoles privées : une réforme complexe
L’éducation risque d’être au cœur de la prochaine campagne électorale québécoise, alors que les principaux partis proposent tous des réformes majeures pour répondre à une insatisfaction croissante de la...
Will NAFTA parties trade away environmental protections?
Among its publicly announced objectives for a renewed North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Canadian government says it hopes to “ensure no NAFTA country weakens environmental protection to...
Learning from the 2017 softwood lumber dispute
A day after the US Thanksgiving holiday in November 2016, the US Lumber Coalition filed petitions for countervailing and antidumping duties against Canadian lumber imports. Five months later, the...
The rise of food policy councils in Canada
Food plays an important role in the health of all Canadians. Our food systems are closely intertwined with our economy, environment and physical, social and cultural wellbeing. Yet in...
Pour un développement plus égalitaire de l’IA
Les progrès récents de l’intelligence artificielle (IA) reposent sur deux facteurs clés : l’augmentation de la capacité de calcul des ordinateurs, qui autorise le développement d’algorithmes d’apprentissage de plus...
Can government fix the loneliness problem?
British Prime Minister Theresa May recently appointed a minister of loneliness. Her announcement last month represented a watershed moment in raising public awareness on an emotional pain that most...
How cities can shape the future
Artificial intelligence is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it is seen as a boon that will propel us, Jetsons-like, into a century of self-driving cars, drones and perpetual...
Precarious work and the changing nature of employment
What does precarious work look like in Canada today, and what is driving it? How should decision-makers address the loss of employment stability? With the help of a panel...
Values-based AI and the new smart cities
Sidewalk Toronto’s high-tech and futuristic waterfront proposals for the city of Toronto are mired in controversy, even though Canadian cities have relied upon state-of-the-art technology and artificial intelligence for...
Allow Salvadorans to make a safe claim in Canada
The Trump administration’s contempt toward immigrants and refugees is no longer a surprise, but it seems Canadian decision-makers haven’t got the memo. In what has now become classic fashion,...
La version française de la Constitution canadienne vue du Québec
Dans leur excellent article en date du 1er février 2018, les professeurs Linda Cardinal et François Larocque plaident pour l’adoption officielle, dans les meilleurs délais, de la version française...
Indigenous consultation and environmental assessments
In August 2016, the federal government established a panel of four specialists to review how government conducts environmental assessments on proposed projects with significant impact on the environment, such...
A few modest amendments to the Constitution
As Canada’s 7th Parliamentary Poet Laureate (2016-17), I never accepted Plato’s notion that poets should not be entrusted with any say over statecraft. Nor have I ever been satisfied...
Deploying AI responsibly in government
In an era of continuous social and technological change, how can an institution like the federal government stay relevant? How can we as public servants stay up to date...
A snapshot of precarious work in Canada today
The nature of work in Canada is changing. With the onset of the so-called “fourth industrial revolution” careers are becoming a patchwork of impermanent contracts and “gigs,” which often...
“White settler revisionism” threatens Métis-Crown reconciliation
The 2016 census revealed explosive growth in the self-identified Métis population in Canada. The 51.2 percent growth of self-identified Métis from 2006 to 2016 easily surpassed the growth of...
CETA and procurement: opening an open market?
Getting access to provincial and municipal government procurement contracts was one of the primary objectives for the European Union in negotiating the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with...
Moderation, the “elusive virtue”
An old friend of mine used to make a habit of interjecting the phrase “moderation in action and attitude,” always in an ironic tone of voice, at appropriate moments...
Why AI needs nursing
Computer science and nursing science may not be a common pairing now, but as digital health evolves, nursing will be an essential partner in the effective integration of artificial...
Active bystanders can stop abuse in the halls of power
People who work with abuse victims are much, much better humans than I am. They don’t judge. They educate, they help, they focus on healing and they try to...
Environmental assessment policy must be based on science
It’s a new year, and it is time for the federal government to turn over a new leaf on the environment. Justin Trudeau’s Liberals, and the Conservatives before them,...
Modernizing financial regulation to address climate-related risks
In an important step toward updating financial regulation to maintain relevance in the era of climate change, Ontario’s Ministry of Finance is reviewing the need for new policy on...
Artificial intelligence and journalism
Readers of 20 regional newspapers in the UK have been unwittingly involved in what was called a first for journalism. At the end of 2017, a bunch of stories...
Indigenous voters and the 2019 election
Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde was recently quoted as saying, “If you want to become an MP, you better listen to us. You better focus on...
Le projet inachevé de la Constitution bilingue du Canada
Depuis 150 ans, la fédération canadienne tire sa légitimité d’une constitution dont la majorité des textes, notamment la Loi constitutionnelle de 1867, ne sont pas officiels en français. En...