How Ottawa Spends, 2014-2015

How Ottawa Spends, 2014-2015
Author: G. Bruce Doern
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2014-10-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0773584994

The 2014-15 edition of How Ottawa Spends critically examines national politics and related fiscal, economic, and social priorities and policies, with an emphasis on the now long-running Harper-linked Senate scandal and the serious challenges to Harper's leadership and controlling style of attack politics. Contributors from across Canada examine the Conservative government agenda both in terms of its macroeconomic fiscal policy and electoral success since 2006 and also as it plans for a 2015 electoral victory with the aid of a healthy surplus budgetary war chest. Individual chapters examine several closely linked political, policy, and spending realms including the growing strength and nature of the Justin Trudeau-led Liberal Party challenge, the 2014 Harper Economic Action Plan, the demise of federal environmental policy under Harper’s responsible resource development strategy, the Conservative’s crime and punishment agenda, the growing evidence regarding the federal government’s muzzling of scientists and evidence in federal policy formation, and the now five-year story of the Harper creation, treatment, and role of the Parliamentary Budget Officer.

How Ottawa Spends, 2012-2013

How Ottawa Spends, 2012-2013
Author: G. Bruce Doern
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 300
Release: 2012
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0773540946

A critical examination of the federal government policy agenda in the context of Canada's opposition power structure and the global debt crisis.

How Ottawa Spends, 2010-2011

How Ottawa Spends, 2010-2011
Author: G. Bruce Doern
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 317
Release: 2010
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0773537287

Fresh takes on the recession and the federal minority government.

Canadian Public Budgeting in the Age of Crises

Canadian Public Budgeting in the Age of Crises
Author: G. Bruce Doern
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2013-04-18
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0773588523

A broad look at attempts to address economic crises by various governments, with insights into how budget decisions are made.

Canadian Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy

Canadian Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy
Author: G. Bruce Doern
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 463
Release: 2016-06-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0773598995

Canadian Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy presents new critical analysis about related developments in the field such as significantly changed concepts of peer review, merit review, the emergence of big data in the digital age, and the rise of an economy and society dominated by the internet and information. The authors scrutinize the different ways in which federal and provincial policies have impacted both levels of government, including how such policies impact on Canada’s natural resources. They also study key government departments and agencies involved with science, technology, and innovation to show how these organizations function increasingly in networks and partnerships, as Canada seeks to keep up and lead in a highly competitive global system. The book also looks at numerous realms of technology across Canada in universities, business, and government and various efforts to analyze biotechnology, genomics, and the Internet, as well as earlier technologies such as nuclear reactors, and satellite technology. The authors assess whether a science-and-technology-centred innovation economy and society has been established in Canada – one that achieves a balance between commercial and social objectives, including the delivery of public goods and supporting values related to redistribution, fairness, and community and citizen empowerment. Probing the nature of science advice across prime ministerial eras, including recent concerns over the Harper government’s claimed muzzling of scientists in an age of attack politics, Canadian Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy provides essential information for academics and practitioners in business and government in this crucial and complex field.

Ideas, Institutions, and Interests

Ideas, Institutions, and Interests
Author: Peter W.B. Phillips
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2022-03-31
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1487534817

Canada’s thirteen provinces and territories are significant actors in Canadian society, directly shaping cultural, political, and economic domains. Regions also play a key role in creating diversity within innovative activity. The role of provinces and territories in setting science, technology, and innovation policy is, however, notably underexplored. Ideas, Institutions, and Interests examines each province and territory to offer real-world insights into the complexity and opportunities of regionally differentiated innovation policy in a pan-continental system. Contributing scholars detail the distinctive ways in which provinces and territories articulate ideas and interests through their institutions, programs, and policies. Many of the contributing authors have engaged first-hand with either micro- or macro-level policy innovation and are innovation leaders in their own right, providing invaluable perspectives on the topic. Exploring the vital role of provinces in the last thirty years of science, technology, and innovation policy development and implementation, Ideas, Institutions, and Interests is an insightful book that places innovation policy in the context of multilevel governance.

A Subtle Balance

A Subtle Balance
Author: Edward A. Parson
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 342
Release: 2015-06-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0773583874

A Subtle Balance critically reflects on major trends and enduring challenges over the last four decades of public policy and governance. During this time, a tension has existed between two aims for public decisions: that they be based on the best available evidence and analysis, and that they be fully democratic. This period has seen a continuing drive for more direct citizen engagement in decision-making and governments trying to address major policy issues through novel consultative and collaborative processes. In essays that offer detailed and novel insights into the recent history of specific issues in social policy, environmental policy, and processes of policy advice and decision-making, contributors elaborate on how these trends have played out in diverse areas of practice, what their consequences have been, and how specific institutional reforms could reset the requisite balance between expertise, evidence, and democracy in Canadian public policy. Inspired by the wide-ranging contributions to scholarship and practice of A.R. (Rod) Dobell, A Subtle Balance draws on the influences of distinguished scholars and sophisticated practitioners of public policy to assess recent changes in governance. Contributors include Martin Bunton, Barry Carin, Ian Clark, Rachel Culley, Rod Dobell, Lia Ernst, Jill Horwitz, John Langford, Justin Longo, Michael Prince, Harry Swain, Charles Ungerleider, Josee van Eijndhoven, Michael Wolfson, and David Zussman.

Policy Analysis in Canada

Policy Analysis in Canada
Author: Michael Howlett
Publisher: Policy Press
Total Pages: 510
Release: 2018-05-23
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1447346041

Policy analysis in Canada brings together original contributions from many of the field’s leading scholars. Contributors chronicle the evolution of policy analysis in Canada over the past 50 years and reflect on its application in both governmental and non-governmental settings. As part of the International Library of Policy Analysis series, the book enables cross-national comparison of public policy analysis concepts and practice within national and sub-national governments, media, NGOs and other institutional settings. Informed by the latest scholarship on policy analysis, the volume is a valuable resource for academics and students of policy studies, public management, political science and comparative policy studies.

Still Renovating

Still Renovating
Author: Greg Suttor
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 327
Release: 2016-11-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0773548580

Social housing - public, non-profit, or co-operative - was once a part of Canada's urban success story. After years of neglect and many calls for affordable homes and solutions to homelessness, housing is once again an important issue. In Still Renovating, Greg Suttor tells the story of the rise and fall of Canadian social housing policy. Focusing on the main turning points through the past seven decades, and the forces that shaped policy, this volume makes new use of archival sources and interviews, pays particular attention to institutional momentum, and describes key housing programs. The analysis looks at political change, social policy trends, housing market conditions, and game-changing decisions that altered the approaches of Canadian governments, their provincial partners, and the local agencies they supported. Reinterpreting accounts written in the social housing heyday, Suttor argues that the 1970s shift from low-income public housing to community-based non-profits and co-ops was not the most significant change, highlighting instead the tenfold expansion of activity in the 1960s and the collapse of social housing as a policy priority in the 1990s. As housing and neighbourhood issues continue to flare up in municipal, provincial, and national politics, Still Renovating is a valuable resource on Canada’s distinctive legacy in affordable housing.

The Public Sector in an Age of Austerity

The Public Sector in an Age of Austerity
Author: Bryan M. Evans
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 318
Release: 2018-07-23
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 077355419X

Following the 2008 global financial crisis, Canada appeared to escape the austerity implemented elsewhere, but this was spin hiding the reality. A closer look reveals that the provinces – responsible for delivering essential public and social services such as education and healthcare – shouldered the burden. The Public Sector in an Age of Austerity examines public-sector austerity in the provinces and territories, specifically addressing how austerity was implemented, what forms austerity agendas took (from regressive taxes and new user fees to public-sector layoffs and privatization schemes), and what, if any, political responses resulted. Contributors focus on the period from 2007 to 2015, the global financial crisis and the period of fiscal consolidation that followed, while also providing a longer historical context – austerity is not a new phenomenon. A granular examination of each jurisdiction identifies how changing fiscal conditions have affected the delivery of public services and restructured public finances, highlighting the consequences such changes have had for public-sector workers and users of public services. The first book of its kind in Canada, The Public Sector in an Age of Austerity challenges conventional wisdom by showing that Canada did not escape post-crisis austerity, and that its recovery has been vastly overstated.