Intended Consequences

Tim Hudak, CEO of the Ontario Real Estate Association, joins us to talk about the recent StrategyCorp Institute white paper "Rebuilding Ontario: A Framework for Recovery." The paper puts forward 15 ideas to help real estate drive the economic recovery from COVID-19, including options like a temporary land transfer tax holiday and a home renovation tax credit. As former Leader of the Ontario PC Par...

Ontario Long-Term Care Association CEO Donna Duncan joins us to discuss a sobering but important topic: the state of Ontario's long-term care system in the wake of COVID-19. As Ontario ages, the future of long-term care policy is becoming critically important. Donna takes us through what went wrong in the early days of the pandemic, how it was handled, and the lessons learned to prevent future out...

In our Season 2 Premiere, noted journalist, TV host, and author Steve Paikin joins us for a state of the union on Ontario politics. We discuss the impact of the pandemic on Premier Ford's approval ratings, the state of each of the main parties, the road to the 2022 election, and changes to the deep seeded rural/urban divide in Ontario. Steve brings his decades of covering Queen's Park to the conve...

On our last episode of the season, Linda Franklin (President and CEO of Colleges Ontario) joins us to talk about their vision for the future of Ontario's post-secondary system as it responds to changing labour market needs caused by automation and COVID-19. We discuss the details of our new full-length StrategyCorp Institute white paper, "The Future of Ontario's Workers." The paper and its recomme...

On this episode, Toronto City Councillor Jennifer McKelvie (Ward 25, Scarborough-Rouge Park) joins us on her first ever podcast to talk about three important issues: the financial impact of COVID-19 on the City's books, the future of transit in Toronto, and actions that can be taken to address systemic racism within the City. In the discussion, Councillor McKelvie draws on her past career as a ren...

Is Canada's deficit out of control? Can we afford the COVID-19 relief programs already in place? How will we pay back the cost of pandemic relief? Can we get back to budget balance? What does a proper fiscal recovery look like? The COVID-19 pandemic has simply uprooted Canada's fiscal plan. Kevin Page, President and CEO of the Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy and Canada's first ever Parli...

Ontario's Education Minister, the Hon. Stephen Lecce, spent the first half of this year fighting to keep kids inside the classroom. Little did he know, he'd spend the second half fighting to ensure they had the resources needed to learn outside the classroom because of COVID-19. Minister Lecce joins the podcast for a fascinating talk about the decision to close Ontario's schools to protect from th...

The Canadian auto show was supposed to be the highlight of early 2020 - but then COVID-19 hit. Flavio Volpe, President of the Auto Parts Manufacturers Association put out the call to convert assembly lines for car doors and engines into factories making everything from ventilators to medical gowns. In a matter of days, they re-tooled and launched the largest peace time manufacturing mobilization C...

Ken Boessenkool, a native of Alberta, was once described as "an election strategist and policy chef who lurks around conservative parties everywhere in Canada." True to form, Ken recently came up with the idea of a Crisis Basic Income - a temporary universal basic income that could be taxed back from wealthier people next year - to respond to COVID-19. On this episode, we discuss that idea in-dept...

Nathan Cullen, former 15 year British Columbia NDP Member of Parliament, joins us to talk about the impacts of COVID-19 out West, the future of the New Democratic Party, and he gives us an update on what he's up to - including his role as British Columbia's liaison with the Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs negotiating over the Coastal Gas Link pipeline. Nathan gives his thoughts on what to watch for...

How will COVID-19 change the Canadian economy? What do policy makers need to do to ensure we can properly recover from COVID-19? Where can relief packages be strengthened and what policies are needed next? On this episode, we're joined by Karim Bardeesy - former Deputy Principal Secretary to the Premier of Ontario and current head of the Ryerson Leadership Lab to talk policy shop related to COVID-...

On this episode we're joined by Bonnie Lysyk, Ontario's first female Auditor General. The Auditor is a non-partisan officer of the Legislature responsible for ensuring value for money spent by government. Auditor Lysyk was appointed in 2013 in the middle of an infamous audit on the true costs of the 2011 gas plant scandal. After releasing that report it became clear that the new Auditor was compet...

The Ring of Fire may be the single largest resource development opportunity Ontario will ever see. The only problem is the Ring's mineral deposits are located hundreds of kilometres from the nearest road. The Province has put aside $1 billion to build a set of roads to the Ring, but everything from negotiations with local Indigenous communities to complex infrastructure requirements have to be sor...

The fourth episode of the podcast features Dr. Bob Bell, former Ontario Deputy Minister of Health and a 40 year medical expert. Dr. Bell talks about the challenges of dealing with Corona Virus in Ontario and what comes next on that front. He also touches on managing a $64 billion Ministry, the future of Ontario health care, and what drove him to become a partisan Liberal for the first time in a mo...

The third episode of the podcast features Kim Moran, CEO of Children's Mental Health Ontario. Kim discusses the challenges of navigating Ontario's mental health system for the 28,000 children and youth currently on waiting lists for treatment. She candidly shares her personal experiences with the system and explains what Ontario can do to solve the growing backlog.

The second episode of the podcast features Canada's former Ambassador to the United States David MacNaughton. The episode covers his time as Principal Secretary to Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and his key role throughout the re-negotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement with President Donald Trump's administration.

This first episode of the podcast is meant to introduce listeners to the StrategyCorp Institute of Public Policy and Economy and its podcast, Intended Consequences. It features a live interview from the Institute's launch event.