Futureproofing Canada

Last Fall, Joyce Echaquan, an Indigenous woman, died in a Quebec hospital after posting videos online of the hospital staff insulting her. The tragedy was seen by many as the latest example of the systemic racism that Indigenous people often face when dealing with the Canadian health care system. It’s not the first time systemic racism in health care has made the news or has been denounced by the public or by government officials. And yet it often seems as if things are improving very slowly or not at all. Why is that? What are some of the elements blocking or slowing down change? Whose responsibility is it to find and implement possible solutions? To help us answer these questions and more, we’ve invited Dr. Alika Lafontaine to this week’s podcast. Alika Lafontaine is an Indigenous physician and the chair of the Governance Council of the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Help us get to know you! Fill out our podcast listener survey here: https://options-po.li/podcastsurvey Download for free. New episodes every other Wednesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP or @JRicardoBM.

COVID-19 has put many Canadians out of jobs. But even after the pandemic ends, there’s no indication the labour market will go back to the way it was. Automation, climate change, and the rise of gig work will all have very real consequences for the nature of work. In light of these disruptions, giving job seekers and employers the support they need is more important than ever. Today on the podcast, we’re joined by the authors of an IRPP paper that’s looking at one piece of the puzzle: how to help people get the skills they need to succeed in the jobs of tomorrow. Tony Bonen leads the Labour Market Information Council’s team of economists and data scientists, delivering high-quality labour market information to stakeholders and decision-makers. Matthias Oschinski is an economist specializing in inclusive growth, well-being and climate change at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. Read more in Mapping Canada’s Training Ecosystem: Much Needed and Long Overdue: https://on-irpp.org/394Gz2N Help us get to know you! Fill out our podcast listener survey here: https://options-po.li/podcastsurvey Download for free. New episodes every other Wednesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP or @jbugiel.

It’s just over a month into Canada’s vaccine rollout, and every day seems to bring new federal-provincial bickering or logistical nightmares. It’s difficult and confusing at a time when Canadians just want to get needles into arms. The problem is, it’s not just a Canadian issue – as recent disruptions to vaccine supply have reminded us, the pandemic is global. Our response must be global, too, whether that means helping vaccinate people beyond our borders or considering the international implications of our own COVID-19 policies. Here to discuss this and more is Dr. Alan Bernstein. He’s president and CEO of the global research organization CIFAR and was the founding president of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. He sits on the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and is a member of Canada’s COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force. Help us get to know you! Fill out our podcast listener survey here: https://options-po.li/podcastsurvey Download for free. New episodes every other Wednesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP or @jbugiel.

This week we’ve got a special, bilingual episode of the podcast. To celebrate 40 years of Policy Options, and the end of a truly terrible year, we’re joined by Jennifer Ditchburn, Policy Options’ editor-in-chief. She takes us back to 1980 to discuss what policy concerns of the time still resonate today. And we chat about what the future holds for public-policy debate in Canada, within the magazine and beyond. Plus, let us know how you like the podcast! Fill out our brand-new listener survey here: https://options-po.li/podcastsurvey Download for free. New episodes every other Wednesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP or any member of the team (@jbugiel, @JRicardoBM or @jenditchburn). ... Pour célébrer les 40 ans d’Options politiques et finir cette année difficile en beauté, Jennifer Ditchburn, rédactrice en chef du magazine, nous ramène en 1980. Dans ce balado bilingue, elle revient sur les enjeux politiques de l’époque et examine leur pertinence dans la période actuelle. Elle se penche également sur l’avenir du débat politique dans les médias et nos instances politiques. Si vous appréciez le balado d’Options politiques, nous vous invitons à répondre à notre sondage (seulement en anglais) en cliquant sur le lien qui suit: https://options-po.li/podcastsurvey Le téléchargement est gratuit. Nous mettons en ligne de nouveaux balados chaque deuxième mercredi. Vous pouvez envoyer vos commentaires par Twitter à @IRPP, @jbugiel, @JRicardoBM ou à @jenditchburn.

COVID-19 has tested Canada’s intergovernmental system. With the stakes as high as they are, it’s crucial that all levels of government continue to meet, communicate, and try to work together. To make that process a little easier, this week’s podcast has lessons for policymakers on successful cooperation in the face of complex intergovernmental challenges. Charles Breton, executive director of our new Centre of Excellence on the Canadian Federation, moderates a discussion between Mireille Paquet, Robert Schertzer, and Roxanna Benoit. Mireille and Robert, who are associate professors of political science at Concordia University and the University of Toronto respectively, share findings from their recently released study with the Centre of Excellence, "Irregular Border Crossings and Asylum Seekers in Canada: A Complex Intergovernmental Problem." Meanwhile, Roxanna brings insights on intergovernmental collaboration, drawing on her experience in the public service, including as Alberta’s former deputy minister of International and Intergovernmental Relations. This discussion was originally recorded as a webinar by the Institute of Public Administration of Canada for its recent conference. Read the study here: https://on-irpp.org/3neOikf Download for free. New episodes every other Wednesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP or @charlesbreton.

Canada’s cities have borne the worst of COVID-19. Looking ahead, it’s clear they’ll need targeted support in any future recovery plans. But they’ll also need new tools to help federal, provincial and municipal governments come together and make decisions about Canada’s urban centres. How do we make that happen? Today on the podcast, you’ll hear suggestions from Gabriel Eidelman, the director of the Urban Policy Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. We discuss his recent essay from the IRPP’s Centre of Excellence on the Canadian Federation, entitled "Reimagining the Canadian Federation through an Urban Lens." Then we’re joined by Edmonton mayor Don Iveson. He’s served as city councillor since 2007, mayor since 2013, and chair of the Big City Mayor’s Caucus of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities since 2016. He gives us an insider’s look at what is and isn’t working when it comes to urban governance in Canada. Read Gabriel Eidelman's essay here: https://on-irpp.org/3kDGlEg Download for free. New episodes every other Wednesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP or @jbugiel.

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 they so often overlooked in our poverty reduction plans? And what does this diverse group of Canadians require to support them in moving out of poverty? Today on the podcast, we cover all that and more as we discuss a recent IRPP report: Canada’s Forgotten Poor? Putting Singles Living in Deep Poverty on the Policy Radar. We’re joined first by Colin Busby, a research director at the IRPP. He walks us through this inaugural report from his new program on The Social Safety Net for Working-Age Adults. On the second half of the podcast, Sherri Torjman joins us to share some policy recommendations from her commentary on that report. Sherri is a social policy consultant and policy associate with the Maytree Foundation. She’s vice-chair of the Disability Advisory Committee, which provides advice to the Minister of National Revenue. She was vice-president of the Caledon Institute of Social Policy from 1992 to 2017. Read the report: https://on-irpp.org/32yhkDP Download for free. New episodes every other Wednesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP or @jbugiel.

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.