Futureproofing Canada

Tensions within a federation are a frequent, normal occurrence. In Canada, one only has to think about recurrent debates over health care funding to equalization payments. But recently, Canadian federalism has been experiencing more tension than usual. Alberta’s new premier is proposing a Sovereignty Act, Saskatchewan’s premier expressed a desire for his province to be ‘a nation within a nation’, while Quebec’s government was handily reelected on a platform of strengthening provincial autonomy even further. How can a federation manage these tensions and adapt when faced with such challenges? What are the features of a robust federation? This episode of the podcast is a panel that returns to the fundamentals of federalism to answer these questions. Moderated by Charles Breton, the director of the Centre for Excellence in the Canadian Federation, the discussion features two experts. Jenna Bednar is a professor of political science at the University of Michigan and a leading scholar of federalism. Our second guest, Benoit Pelletier is a professor of law at the University of Ottawa and a former cabinet minister of Quebec. This episode was recorded during an online event held by the Canada School of Public Service and is the first installment of a partnership between the school and the IRPP’s Centre for Excellence. This episode of the podcast is bilingual, with speakers shifting between English and French.

Adult education provides skills development opportunities to help Canadians find better jobs and improve well-being. Yet it remains a “poor cousin” of compulsory and higher education, disconnected from social policy and the education system at large, with its learners and teachers stigmatized. In this episode of the PO Podcast, UBC Education Professor Jude Walker speaks with the IRPP's Cléa Desjardins about Canada’s past efforts to address these issues by creating a national adult education strategy. She offers insights from Aotearoa New Zealand, which went a long way to making adult education mainstream by integrating it into the country’s education system, professionalizing its teachers and standardizing assessments.

In June 2022, we organized a special lecture at the McCord Museum in Montreal. This is a recording of the lecture Queen’s University Professor Emeritus Keith Banting and McGill University Professor Debra Thompson delivered. They explore why Canada’s robust welfare state – which includes universal health care and myriad employment and training programs – as well as a race-neutral immigration selection system, official multiculturalism and the Charter have not been able to mitigate racial economic inequality.

In this special crossover episode with the Humans, on Rights podcast, Policy Options copyeditor and contributor Shannon Sampert, a political analyst and media specialist, speaks to host Stuart Murray about her career in journalism and the intersections of media, politics, and gender. From covering high school sports as a teenager to critiquing reporting on sexual assault cases, she shares her experiences in different positions across Canadian journalism, highlighting the role of media in raising public awareness for the right of free expression.

For the 50th anniversary of the IRPP, we are exploring the biggest public policy challenges facing Canada through a series of panel discussions held at some of Canada’s major policy schools. This episode is a recording of our discussion on political polarization held March 30, 2022, in collaboration with the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. We ask if polarization even exists in Canada. And if it is, what forms does it take, and does it pose a threat to our democracy? The conversation is moderated by IRPP President Jennifer Ditchburn and features Anita Lee, the editor-in-chief of The Green Line; Eric Merkley, an Assistant Professor at the Munk School; Sean Speer, a Senior Fellow at the Munk School; and Darrell Bricker, the CEO of Ipsos and a Senior Fellow at the Munk School.

As Russia’s attack on Ukraine carries on, nearly two-thirds of Ukrainian children have fled their homes. 2 million have gone to other countries while 2.8 million are internally displaced, and dozens have been killed or injured. The war also disrupted crop production and shipment from Ukraine and Russia, the largest exporters of wheat, putting millions more children around the world at risk of hunger. Policy Options Editor-in-Chief Les Perreaux talks to David Morley, president and CEO of UNICEF Canada, about the threats to children arising from this war and what Canada can do to help Ukraine’s vulnerable children and children around the globe dealing with the ripple effects of drought, COVID-19 and war.

L’IRPP célèbre son 50e anniversaire en s’associant aux principales écoles de politiques publiques du pays pour une série de tables rondes, intitulée « Sur le radar des priorités politiques », qui nous aideront à identifier les prochains défis qui occuperont nos décideurs. Cet épisode du balado d’Options politiques porte sur l’impact de la pandémie de COVID-19 sur les clivages existants au sein de la société canadienne. Quels rôles jouent les médias sociaux dans l’élaboration et la diffusion de théories complotistes ? La pandémie a-t-elle eu un effet sur l’évolution du système partisan au Canada ? Après deux ans de pandémie, comment se porte la confiance envers nos institutions politiques ? Cette discussion a eu lieu 24 mars 2022 en partenariat avec le département de science politique de l’Université Laval. Le panel a été modéré par Sule Tomkinson, la directrice du Centre d’analyse des politiques publiques à l’Université Laval. Elle était accompagnée de la professeure titulaire de science politique à l’Université Laval Aurélie Campana, du professeur agrégé de science politique à l’Université Laval Eric Montigny et de Jackie Smith, conseillère municipale et cheffe du parti Transition Québec.

For the 50th anniversary of the IRPP, we are exploring the biggest public policy challenges facing Canada through a series of panel discussions held at some of Canada’s major policy schools. This episode is a recording of our discussion on shifts in regulatory governance held on March 22, 2022 in collaboration with Carleton University’s School of Public Policy and Administration. What is the role of regulation in government policy and how is it changing? How will the COVID-19 pandemic effect how we craft policy? How can regulation be better coordinated at different levels? Moderated by Robert Shepherd of Carleton University, our panel features Darcy Gray, the Chief of Listuguj First Nation, Catherine MacQuarrie, a School fellow of Carleton’s School of Public Policy and Administration, Professor Alexandra Mallett of Carleton, and Kevin Stringer of Carleton University. Each panellist delivers a presentation on an aspect of regulatory governance, followed by a Q&A.

The federal government tabled the 2022 budget on April 7. Coming in the third year of the pandemic, hot off the Liberal-NDP agreement, and the escalating Russian invasion of Ukraine, the federal budget responds both to immediate needs and long-term priorities. On this special crossover episode, we share a conversation from the Voice Above podcast, with host Kate Todd talking to Charles Breton, the Executive Director of the Centre of Excellence on the Canadian Federation, and Colin Busby, a Research Director at the IRPP, about what the budget includes, what it lacks, and what its impacts will be in areas from housing to healthcare. The new budget evaluated the emergency pandemic response programs, phased out some and kept others. It included various policies meant to tackle the extreme rise in housing prices, though our experts are not optimistic that the housing allocations will have the intended effect, especially without significant municipal and provincial cooperation. While there is funding for the dentalcare program – an outcome of the Liberal-NDP agreement – implementation might be the larger hurdle. On the other hand, the budget is mum on the question of healthcare funding: how it will be shared between the federal and provincial governments and the strings that come with federal funding. All that and more in this quick but deep dive into the 2022 federal budget. https://anchor.fm/voice-above

Le gouvernement fédéral a dévoilé le 29 mars son plan très attendu de réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre (GES). Le plan détaille entre autres comment le Canada prévoit atteindre son objectif de générer 40 % moins de GES en 2030 par rapport à 2005. Pour parler de ce projet complexe et certainement ambitieux, le directeur du Centre d’excellence sur la fédération canadienne de l’IRPP Charles Breton s’est entretenu avec celui qui aura la mission d’en assurer la mise en œuvre, le ministre de l’Environnement et du Changement climatique M. Steven Guilbeault.