Futureproofing Canada

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has made headlines for his proposal to hold a referendum on equalization. Now, Canadian premiers have a long history of taking shots at equalization. But what’s different here is Kenney’s focus on fiscal stabilization. It’s a program most of us are likely unfamiliar with, or were until recently. But Kenney is tying these two programs together – describing fiscal stabil...

En 2019, à la suite d’une importante mobilisation de la société civile, la Ville de Montréal a lancé une consultation publique sur le racisme et la discrimination systémiques. Les audiences ont pris fin en décembre, et le rapport final de la consultation devrait être publié au printemps 2020. Ce n’est pas la première fois que le racisme et la discrimination systémiques à Montréal font l’objet d’un...

Parliament has finally resumed sitting, but it’s hardly a fresh start for Justin Trudeau. The regional and ideological fault lines of the last election aren’t going anywhere. And now, it’s on the prime minister – and of course, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs Chrystia Freeland – to find points of common interest with all of Canada’s premiers. So how will Trudeau and...

Last September, a Quebec Superior Court judge struck down key provisions in the Quebec and federal laws on medical assistance in dying (MAiD) in what’s known as the Truchon and Gladu case. These set out how close or predictable one’s death needs to be to qualify for MAiD. Now, on March 11, both laws will come into force – without those provisions in Quebec. Meanwhile, the federal government is hol...

The legalization of cannabis and the pardon system for simple possession charges should have decreased the criminalization surrounding the drug. Yet advocates say the impact of legalization won’t be equal: Black and Indigenous people, already disproportionately targeted by police, will likely bear the brunt of the new cannabis regulations. Meanwhile, they’re facing some of the biggest barriers to...

We hear every day about the ways technology is changing the world around us. But if these conversations mention government, it’s usually to warn against foreign threats to our elections. Rarely do we discuss the digital transformation going on within the public service. The FWD50 conference is trying to change that. For the past few years, it has gathered experts from around the world to speak to...

Canada has an aging population. When we talk about this, our discussions usually circle back to health, and in particular, to the question of how we’re going to care for everyone as the tax base shrinks and the number of people with complex or chronic conditions grows. But older Canadians and their caregivers are struggling now: not just because there aren’t enough specialists or care facilities t...

The 43rd federal election has come to a close. At his first press conference after election night, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stressed that he and the Liberals have a lot of reflecting to do. He said it so often, in fact, that Carleton Journalism Professor Josh Greenberg called this the “reflection re-election.” What does reflection entail? For starters, it means Prime Minister Trudeau and his...

On Monday night, people across Canada tuned in to the first federal debate hosted by the new Leaders’ Debates Commission. If you were looking for measured discussions of policy alternatives, you were out of luck. Instead, viewers got a taste of the parties’ brand management, followed by the usual media narratives: who’s up in the polls, who scored a hit on whom, who “won.” While the messaging may...

The 2019 election campaign is under way. The parties have made major policy announcements. But so far, much of the commentary has focused on political bombshells. When we don’t talk policy as much as we should, that’s a shame. First, because the announcements leaders make are good markers of their party’s election strategy. But more than that, because whoever forms government is going to be making...

When the Senate expenses scandal hit in 2012, it left the parties scrambling to reform the deeply unpopular institution. Then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper had taken small steps over the past several years, but was hitting major constitutional roadblocks. Justin Trudeau took a different approach: in 2014, he removed the Liberal senators from caucus and asked them to sit as independents. Then in 20...

On October 21, Canadian voters will head to the polls to decide who will represent their riding and their country in our 43rd federal election. The parties have just released their campaign slogans, and after the writ drops in September, we can expect election coverage to take over our TV screens and social media feeds. Among that coverage, can we expect to hear about issues that will affect Indig...

When it comes to how Canadians feel about federalism, it turns out there aren’t easy answers. Some provinces and territories are feeling shortchanged while their neighbours are satisfied; our identities are growing even more layered; and our preferred federal-provincial balance of powers is different for every issue and every place. So says the Confederation of Tomorrow, a landmark survey of publi...

Tax-Free Savings Accounts were designed to help lower-income Canadians put money away for retirement. But a decade into the program, new research shows that TFSAs are primarily benefitting higher-income savers. A saver’s credit and other tax changes could be the keys to fixing this flaw, writes Richard Shillington in a widely read study for the IRPP. Richard Shillington is a statistician specializ...

Although economists favour carbon pricing as the most efficient way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the policy has taken an unpredictable path in Canada. With four constitutional challenges and even more provincial opposition, the near-consensus on carbon pricing has fallen apart. Joining us to discuss is Kathryn Harrison, a professor at the University of British Columbia who specializes in Ca...

June 12 marked the release of the Final Report of the Advisory Council on the Implementation of National Pharmacare. The Council recommended that Canada adopt universal, single-payer pharmacare, and set out a plan for how to go about it. Currently, Canada is an outlier: we have among the highest per capita pharmaceutical spending in the world, and are the only OECD country to have universal health...

A move for closure on the debate and a marathon weekend session at the Quebec National Assembly saw the contentious Bill 21 finally pass, 73 to 35. The legislation prohibits public-school teachers, government lawyers, judges and police officers from wearing religious symbols to work, and mandates that citizens uncover their faces while receiving certain public services. And, for the next five year...

Countries around the world are grappling with how to identify and prevent a host of new threats to the integrity of their elections and democratic systems. With the next general election around the corner in Canada, is our policy framework up to the task of dealing with the deliberate spread of false information? We put this question to three experts: Elizabeth Dubois (University of Ottawa), Jenni...

In Canada, thousands of migrants are detained at any time, with up to one third of detainees in maximum and medium-security prisons despite most never having been charged with a crime. The recent Canada v. Chhina Supreme Court ruling allows detained migrants to access the remedy of habeas corpus so that, in appropriate cases, they can challenge the legality and conditions of their detention before...

Le gouvernement fédéral s’est engagé à investir près d’un milliard de dollars sur cinq ans dans cinq projets de supergrappes pour stimuler la collaboration entre sociétés industrielles, organisations et établissements de recherche dans les secteurs à fort potentiel de croissance. Quels seront les éléments clés pour rendre ces supergrappes efficaces ? Comment pourront-elles contribuer à renforcer l...

The 2015 federal election was Canada’s first after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 calls to action. Four years later, both the public discourse and the policy landscape have changed. Yet with critics arguing that many of the advances are symbolic, it’s clear Crown-Indigenous relations still have a ways to go. Today on the podcast, K̓áwáziɫ Marilyn Slett (Heiltsuk Tribal Council), Broc...

2019 has seen huge developments in Canadian politics, and we still have months to go until the federal election. We know some of the political questions that will define election 43. But what about the policy questions? For the next few podcasts, we’ll be sharing coverage from events held by Policy Options, the IRPP and our partners, where experts come together to discuss some of the key policy ch...

What were the highlights of the 2019 federal budget? Policy Options editor-in-chief Jennifer Ditchburn, IRPP research directors Colin Busby and Natalia Mishagina, and Veldon Coburn of Carleton University's Indigenous Studies program share their insights during this special podcast. Download for free. New episodes every second Wednesday.

À mesure que la population canadienne vieillit, les politiques de soins de fin de vie gagnent en importance et suscitent un nombre grandissant de questions. Le gouvernement du Québec a tenté de répondre à certaines de ces préoccupations en établissant en 2015 un régime de directives médicales anticipées. Mais en quoi consiste exactement ce régime et quel est son impact sur les proches des patients...

The 2015 federal election saw the most women elected to Parliament yet. But with women making up only 26 percent of MPs, it’s clear that structural barriers to political participation remain. For racialized and Indigenous women, the path to politics is harder still. This week, Erin Tolley and Mitzie Hunter come on the podcast to discuss the experiences of racialized women in politics. Erin Tolley...