Futureproofing Canada

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 challenges they face during COVID-19, we’re joined by Dorota Blumczynska. She’s the executive director of the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization of Manitoba and president of the Canadian Council for Refugees. She reminds us not only of our different experiences of this pandemic, but of what we have in common: a need for friendship, solidarity, and respect. This podcast is part of the Tackling Inequality as Part of Canada’s Post-Pandemic Recovery special feature: https://options-po.li/33JKn6V Download for free. New episodes every other Wednesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP or @jbugiel, or to Dorota herself (@blumczynska).

Last week marked the launch of the IRPP’s Centre of Excellence on the Canadian Federation. To celebrate, we’re putting out a special edition of the podcast hosted by centre director Charles Breton. Charles came to the IRPP in 2019 from Vox Pop Labs, where as research director he led the design of innovative public opinion research tools such as Vote Compass. He holds a PhD in political science from the University of British Columbia. Before pursuing an academic career, he was a researcher and journalist for current affairs programs on Radio-Canada. He’ll be speaking with Jörg Broschek, Stéphanie Chouinard and Alain Noël, three political scientists who contributed essays to the centre’s inaugural series. They’ll be drawing on those essays to discuss last week’s Speech from the Throne and its implications for Canadian federalism. This is a bilingual podcast. Skip to the 25-minute mark to listen to the French part of the episode. Download for free. New episodes every other Wednesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP or @charlesbreton. /// La semaine dernière, l’IRPP a inauguré officiellement son Centre d’excellence sur la fédération canadienne. Nous marquons cet événement par un balado bilingue animé par le directeur du Centre, Charles Breton. Charles s’est joint à l’IRPP en 2019. Il a été auparavant directeur de la recherche à Vox Pop Labs, où il a dirigé la conception d’outils de recherche innovants sur l’opinion publique, tel que la Boussole électorale. Titulaire d’un doctorat en science politique de l’Université de la Colombie-Britannique, il a été recherchiste et journaliste pour des émissions d’affaires publiques à Radio-Canada avant d’entreprendre un parcours universitaire. Charles s’entretient avec Jörg Broschek, Stéphanie Chouinard et Alain Noël, trois experts des politiques publiques qui ont écrit des essais pour la série de lancement du Centre. Se fondant sur leurs textes, ils examinent le discours du Trône de la semaine dernière et ses répercussions sur le fédéralisme canadien. Pour accéder directement à la discussion en français, allez à la marque de 25 minutes. Le téléchargement est gratuit. Nous produisons de nouveaux balados un mercredi sur deux.  Si vous avez des questions et des commentaires, envoyez des tweets à @IRPP ou @jbugiel.

A new Parliament is fast approaching, and the Trudeau government’s COVID plans will soon be put to the test. We don’t yet know what’s in next week’s Speech from the Throne, but we do know one major change the government’s introducing: the transition away from the Canada Emergency Response Benefit and toward Employment Insurance and a trio of new benefit programs. With six months of the pandemic behind us, now’s the time to stop and reflect on the federal response so far. Have the support programs done their job? Are the proposed changes in the public interest? And what can we learn from the labour market effects of past crises as we retool our response to the current one? This week on the podcast, two labour economists help us figure it all out. First, we have Mikal Skuterud, an associate professor in economics at the University of Waterloo who’s also affiliated with the Canadian Labour Economics Forum. He gives us the rundown on the new federal benefits and EI changes, and explains how economic insights can help make sense of pandemic-era policy. Next, René Morissette, research manager in the Social Analysis and Modelling Division of Statistics Canada, joins us to share insights from his June IRPP study, “Turbulence or Steady Course? Permanent Layoffs in Canada, 1978-2016.” You can find that study here: https://on-irpp.org/2YZxJhx Download for free. New episodes every other Wednesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP or @jbugiel.

It seems like every day, we’re seeing new changes that COVID-19 is bringing to the world of work. Firms are choosing to automate and digitize, and they’re turning increasingly to remote and casual work. Policy-makers have helped people and businesses through the early days of the crisis. But now it’s time to meet the future of work head on. Today on the podcast, we have Natalia Mishagina, research director of the IRPP’s new program on The Future of Skills and Adult Learning. She’ll be building on a recent IRPP study by Statistics Canada’s Marc Frenette and Kristyn Frank to talk about who’s at risk of seeing their jobs transformed by automation. Next, we’re bringing on Sunil Johal to discuss how policy-makers should meet the labour market challenges accelerated by COVID-19. Sunil serves as a fellow to the Public Policy Forum and the Brookfield Institute. From 2012 to 2019 he was policy director at the University of Toronto’s Mowat Centre, and in 2019, he was named chair of the Expert Panel on Modern Labour Standards by the federal Minister of Labour. Download for free. New episodes every other Wednesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP or @jbugiel. The Demographics of Automation: Who Is at Risk? -- https://on-irpp.org/3dJt2hr

As calls to “defund the police” have spread around the world, we’ve seen the violence police inflict upon communities of colour. Race-based data is hard to come by in Canada, but the data we do have show Black and Indigenous people to be disproportionately policed and to face high rates of police violence. Now, many Canadians are seriously considering the need to reform or even abolish our police forces. But what does the movement to defund the police require from a policy perspective? And how can people working within Canadian institutions play a role in this global movement? To answer some of those questions, we’re joined by Holly Campeau and Kiké Roach. Holly Campeau is an assistant professor of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Alberta specializing in the intersection between criminal justice, cultural sociology, and law. She is also Senior Researcher with the Global Justice Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto. Kiké Roach is the Unifor National Chair in Social Justice and Democracy at Ryerson University, where she teaches courses in social movements and politics, and in human rights. As a lawyer, she was an advocate for accountability and reform in policing and in detention centres for many years representing organizations such as the Black Action Defense Committee. Download for free. New episodes every other week. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP or @jbugiel.

Au-delà des manchettes et de la course des meneurs, les électeurs sont peu nombreux à savoir comment se déroule une élection. Qui en sont ses acteurs clés ? Quel rôle jouent les médias dans l’élection ? Comment le gouvernement continue-t-il de fonctionner durant la campagne ? L’ouvrage Inside the Campaign: Managing Elections in Canada se penche sur ces questions et nous mène dans les coulisses de la campagne électorale fédérale de 2019. Dans ce balado, Thierry Giasson, professeur de sciences politiques à l’Université Laval et codirecteur de l’ouvrage, nous parle du travail des personnes qui tentent d’orienter le choix des électeurs et de la manière dont se déroule une élection canadienne.

Earlier in June, the Fair Deal Panel made public its final report to the Alberta government. The stated goal of the panel was to find ways to get Alberta a better deal in the federation, and promote the province’s economic interests along the way. In the recommendations, some of the items are now standard fare for Alberta politics, including the referendum on equalization promised by Premier Jason Kenney. Others, like establishing a provincial police force and withdrawing from the Canada Pension Plan, not so much. This week on the podcast, we take a deep dive into the policy and politics of the Fair Deal Panel, and what they tell us about Alberta today, with Trevor Tombe and Melanee Thomas. Trevor Tombe is an associate professor of economics and a research fellow at the University of Calgary School of Public Policy. He’s also the author of the IRPP paper, "An (Overdue) Review of Canada’s Fiscal Stabilization Program," which we discussed on an earlier podcast. Melanee Thomas is an associate professor of political science at the University of Calgary. She’s written several pieces for Policy Options, including one about separatist anger in Alberta and another about Jason Kenney’s focus on Quebec. What’s the deal with fiscal stabilization?: https://options-po.li/2uXBzNk An (Overdue) Review of Canada’s Fiscal Stabilization Program: https://on-irpp.org/38OBr1q Jason Kenney’s case of Quebec envy: https://options-po.li/2KOTiLE As Alberta’s anger deepens, it gets harder to turn off: https://options-po.li/311g0GG

Canada’s system of long-term care was a powder keg; COVID-19 the spark that set it alight. As the virus overtook nursing and care homes across the country, we began to hear about the outdated facilities and the population unable to advocate for itself. Then there are the workers themselves, forced to work across multiple facilities just to make ends meet. These overwhelmingly female and disproportionately racialized workers have increasingly taken the spotlight, as researchers have pointed to our undervaluing of care work as a factor in COVID’s deadly spread. One of these researchers is Ivy Lynn Bourgeault. She’s a professor of sociology and University of Ottawa research chair in Gender, Diversity and the Professions, with an international reputation for her research on gender and the healthcare workforce. She joins the podcast to discuss her recent piece for Policy Options on the need for a revaluing of the work that goes into long-term care. Her piece for Policy Options: https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/may-2020/long-term-care-work-is-essential-but-essentially-under-recognized/ Policy Options' series on Facing up to Canada’s Long-Term Care Policy Crisis: policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/may…olicy-crisis/ Download for free. New episodes every other week. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP or @jbugiel.

COVID-19 has been a death sentence for many Canadians living or working in long-term care. The scale of this loss is overwhelming, with over 80 percent of COVID deaths in Canada linked to nursing and retirement homes.  This crisis brings to light what many have known for years: the system is broken, and society's most vulnerable are paying the price. Dr. Samir Sinha joins the podcast to make sense of this political and policy failure, and to call on all of us to act. Dr. Sinha is the director of geriatrics at Sinai Health System and the University Health Network in Toronto and an associate professor of medicine at the University of Toronto and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He’s also the director of health policy research at Ryerson University’s National Institute on Ageing. COVID-19 tracker: https://ltc-covid19-tracker.ca/ Policy Options' series on Facing up to Canada’s Long-Term Care Policy Crisis: https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/may-2020/facing-up-to-canadas-long-term-care-policy-crisis/ Download for free. New episodes every other week. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP or @jbugiel.

Depuis le début de la pandémie de COVID-19, les différents gouvernements, les professionnels de la santé et la population ont dû prendre des décisions difficiles qui ont d’importantes dimensions éthiques. Quels principes devraient guider l’allocation de ressources médicales limitées ? Les mesures de confinement imposées par les gouvernements sont-elles disproportionnées ? Devrait-on utiliser des outils technologiques comme le traçage de contacts et la géolocalisation pour mieux faire face à la pandémie ? Ce sont quelques-unes des questions d’éthique qui ont été soulevées ces dernières semaines. Président de la Commission de l’éthique en science et en technologie et professeur titulaire de philosophie à l’Université Laval, Jocelyn Maclure nous parle de la dimension éthique des mesures adoptées pour faire face à la pandémie et de la place que devraient prendre les considérations éthiques dans les décisions gouvernementales. Le téléchargement est gratuit. Nous mettons en ligne de nouveaux balados chaque deuxième mercredi. Vous pouvez envoyer vos commentaires par Twitter à @IRPP ou @JRicardoBM. Ce balado fait partie du dossier « La pandémie de coronavirus : la réponse du Canada. » Cliquez sur le lien qui suit pour accéder au dossier : https://policyoptions.irpp.org/fr/magazines/march-2020/la-pandemie-de-coronavirus-la-reponse-du-canada/