Policy Options

Indigenous youth are the youngest, fastest growing segment of Canada’s population. They hold tremendous potential to contribute to and transform the country’s economic, political and cultural life. The key...

Le 30 octobre 1995, les Québécois ont fait preuve d’une grande maturité démocratique : 93,5 % d’entre eux se sont déplacés pour choisir leur avenir. Après avoir débattu vivement,...

Working-age singles are more likely than most to be living in deep poverty, with incomes that fall well short of what’s required to meet basic needs. So why are...

If climate change and electoral reform have one thing in common, it’s their intractability. Climate change is an issue for human civilization that requires a global effort to overcome...

The throne speech in September made numerous mentions of the fact that the government has stepped up and signed contracts to domestically produce personal protective equipment (to the tune...

Back in 1999, the Supreme Court’s Marshall decision recognized that Mi’kmaq First Nations have had, and continue to have, a treaty right to catch and sell fish. As a...

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the federal government to do two things. First, create and quickly implement new policies and programs to mitigate the health effects of the virus....

What should parental leave benefits look like in post-pandemic Canada? While the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic have spurred critical attention to re-thinking approaches to care policies,...

Il est encourageant de constater que les mesures en faveur du climat ont été présentées dans le dernier discours du Trône comme la « pierre angulaire » du plan de relance...

On October 5, 2020, the federal Minister of Justice introduced Bill C-7 to amend Canada’s medical assistance in dying (MAiD) legislation. Parliament will debate this bill over the coming...

Moral purpose or marketing? This summer, Deutsche Bank became the latest major bank to boycott Arctic resource investment. It’s part of a growing chorus of financial institutions demonstrating their...

The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the essential nature of agricultural work in Canada and our reliance on migrant workers to get the job done. Despite restrictions on travel to...

How will today’s 15-year-olds remember 2020? What about the years just following the pandemic that uprooted their lives? Young people may not be hit directly by COVID-19, but they...

There is no “one-size-fits-all” in democratic processes, and public consultations are no exception. Growing evidence suggests that consultation processes, through which policy-makers invite the public to share opinions on...

Note: the word L’nu means the people of the same tongue and is the preferred name of the tribe otherwise known as Mi’kmaq. L’nu is singular and L’nuk is...

While the mantra for the COVID-19 crisis has been “let’s build back better,” it will be impossible to do so without acknowledging that this pandemic has hit demographic groups...

Just how diverse is the federal public service? This question recently has attracted more scrutiny, particularly when it comes to the inclusion of Black Canadians in the bureaucracy. Before...

Dans son récent discours du Trône, le gouvernement fédéral a promis à la population des régions rurales et éloignées l’accès à un médecin de famille ou à une équipe...

As the COVID-19 crisis deepens, more and more people are losing their workplace health insurance. Even before the pandemic, an estimated 10 to 20 percent of Canadians were not...

It is of the utmost importance that the lessons we have learned throughout this pandemic help us shape a brighter future for people living in Canada. This crisis has...

La crise sanitaire et économique provoquée par la COVID-19 est un test majeur pour la viabilité financière des provinces canadiennes. Alors même que leurs dépenses augmentent (en santé et...

Implanting a defective device or prescribing the wrong medication are two examples of medical errors causing death and ravaging lives. Doing the wrong thing to someone is vastly more...

Please, I implore you. Can we just retire the term resilience? This might seem like a strange request, but I can’t muster the, uh, resilience to endure prolonged exposure...

The impact of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States and the resulting recession is best understood in the context of what has happened to the U.S. economy over...

This summer, in the middle of a health and economic crisis, Canada’s finance minister resigned.  His concerns over the cost and scope of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s green economic...

If there’s one group of Canadians that have really taken a hard hit by COVID-19, it’s working parents, especially mothers. If anyone needs a break, it’s them. And they...

L’annonce faite dans le discours du Trône de faire de la formation des travailleurs et des jeunes une priorité est une excellente nouvelle. Au fil des ans, les gouvernements...

The global impact of COVID-19 on people who sell sexual services has been shattering, worsening their already precarious situation. Findings from a recent study of sex workers from six...

The number of people doing “gig work” has been rising for decades, and the precarity of gig workers has been underscored by the pandemic. Gig workers have been on...

The last seven months haven’t been easy on any of us. But newcomers, especially asylum seekers and refugee claimants, have had an especially hard time. To understand the unique...

L’itinérance comporte de multiples aspects, mais toutes les personnes qui n’ont aucun lieu d’habitation fixe, sécuritaire et abordable, sont plus vulnérables à la pandémie de COVID-19. En effet, ces...

Women remain conspicuously absent from decision-making tables across Canada despite being disproportionately affected by COVID-19 at work and at home. Women’s voices in policy-making would amplify the message that...

Le drame que représente le décès de Joyce Echaquan s’inscrit dans une longue suite d’événements dont la récurrence aussi mathématique qu’historique ne laisse aucun doute sur la part systémique...

Canadians must not miss the opportunity to use the pandemic recovery to redefine what we think of as national progress. Rather than continuing to rely on gross domestic product...

La pandémie de COVID-19 a mis en évidence plusieurs faiblesses des chaînes d’approvisionnement dont dépendent le Canada et le Québec, mais aussi la grande résilience et la capacité d’adaptation...

When the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld the criminal defence of extreme intoxication this summer, the public backlash was swift and withering. Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath urged the...

This article uses information gathered from the Canadian Council for Youth Prosperity and partners in national town halls for youth employment service providers. It is important to note that...

Il est difficile en tant que femme autochtone d’écrire sur la mort de Joyce Echaquan. Cette mort ravive toutes les blessures de la colonisation. Comment réfléchir alors froidement aux...

The recent spike in COVID-19 cases across the country is a sober reminder that a return to normalcy is still far away. But that doesn’t mean that policy-makers shouldn’t...

La pandémie de COVID-19 affecte toutes les sphères de la société, mais ce sont les personnes vulnérables qui demeurent les plus durement touchées, car la crise sanitaire a aussi...

A key goal laid out in the federal government’s recent speech from the throne was to “build back better to create a stronger, more resilient Canada.” In our view,...

There has been much discussion about the mental health crisis that is upon us due to the lasting impacts of the pandemic. But the crisis was not the making...

Avant même que ne débute la pandémie de COVID‑19,  la santé mentale des étudiants universitaires était un sujet de préoccupation grandissant. On parlait surtout de dépression et d’anxiété chez...

Early 2020 sent COVID-19 shock waves around the world. The devastation saved its knockout punch for groups already struggling to find steady ground: racialized communities, Indigenous Canadians and persons...

COVID-19 has imposed a global economic shock the like of which hasn’t been seen since the Great Depression. Pre-COVID, the world was just starting to come to terms with...

L’analyse des effets de la pandémie de COVID-19 sur les jeunes exige tout d’abord une compréhension approfondie de la nature de cette étape de la vie qui va de...

The COVID-19 pandemic has painfully illustrated what people who use drugs have long known: that the current overdose crisis is more of a “drug poisoning crisis,” and that until...

Despite their status of being at an increased risk of contracting COVID-19, people with disabilities have largely been left out of the conversation around supporting Canadians throughout this global...

The COVID-19 pandemic came with many challenges other than the virus itself. In many situations it has magnified societal ills. This is especially apparent in the rise of Islamophobia...

As the Rural Forum Chair with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), I’ve seen first-hand how rural communities have shaped Canada’s pandemic response. I’ve seen them protect frontline services...