More reform in New Brunswick: rural municipalities?

Abstract. Local government in New Brunswick has experienced many changes during the last ten years. The major reforms implemented in 1967 (following the recommendations of the Byrne Commission) included the abolition of rural county government. As a result, approximately 250,000 of New Brunswick's residents were left without any local government structure. The lack of rural local government did not appear to be a major issue until recently. As of late, however, there has been increasing criticism on two fronts. First, residents of the non-incorporated areas have been voicing their discontent over the fact that they do not have elected local government. Secondly, the residents of the incorporated municipalities have complained that the non-incorporated areas were not being taxed enough and that they were benefiting from the facilities of the incorporated municipal units without paying their fair share of the costs (in essence, a free-rider problem). The result of such criticisms was the creation (in 1975) of the Task Force on Non-Incorporated Areas in New Brunswick, which recommended a new system of rural municipalities to be applied to all present non-incorporated areas of the province. While as yet legislation has not been introduced, the report of the Task Force has stirred up considerable debate. Sommaire. Le gouvernement local, au Nouveau-Brunswick, a subi de nombreux changements au cours des dix dernières années. Les principales réformes, effectuées en 1967 (à la suite des recommandations de la Commission Byrne), comportaient, entre autres, l'abolition des gouvernement des comtés ruraux, ce qui laissa quelque 250,000 résidents du Nouveau-Brunswick sans aucune structure gouvernementale locale. Ce manque de gouvernement rural local ne semble présenter de problème majeur que depuis peu. Maintenant, toutefois, les critiques se multiplient sur deux fronts. Tout d'abord, les résidents des regions non incorporées ont manifesté leur mécontentement de ne pas avoir de gouvernement local élu. Deuxièmement, les residents des municipalités incorporées se sont plaints de ce que les régions non incorporées ne soient pas suffisamment imposées et qu'elles profitent des installations des municipalités incorporées sans payer leur juste part des coǔts (essentiellement le problème des profiteurs). Ces critiques ont entraǐné la creation (en 1975) d'un groupe d'experts chargés d'érudier les régions non incorporées du Nouveau-Brunswick. Ce groupe recommenda un nouveau système de municipalités rurales, à appliquer à toutes les municipalités non incorporées à l'heure actuelle au Nouveau-Brunswick. Aucune législation n'a encore été adoptee, mais le rapport du groupe d'experts a suscité toutes sortes de débats.     

Politiques publiques d'innovation régionale et compétitivité mondiale : une étude comparée Québec-Wallonie

Abstract: The objective of this article is to analyse public initiatives to stimulate regional innovation in Walloon region in Belgium and in the Province of Quebec. The empirical analysis relies on the competitive poles program in Walloon and on the ACCORD project (Action Concertée de Coopération Régionale de Développement) in Quebec. The comparison will allow discussing the implementation and regional embedding of these programs and will reveal the similarities and the differences between the structure, the organization and the deployment of these strategies in the various regions targeted.     

Cooperation,coordination and competition: Why do municipalities participate in economic development alliances?

Economic development is a policy area typically seen by municipalities as competitive in nature. Cooperation with neighbouring municipalities is rare, as the benefits are often selective. This paper examines the formation and governance of economic development alliances in Canada, specifically exploring the motivations of municipalities entering into these cooperative relationships. Four main factors influenced a municipality's decision to cooperate on economic development: reducing duplication, increasing international visibility, filling service gaps, and allowing for greater access to federal and provincial grants. Economic conditions dictated the course of partnership. Dividing mutual gains is the major challenge to overcome in order to keep economic development alliances together.     

A new model for making Aboriginal policy? Evaluating the Kelowna Accord and the promise of multilevel governance in Canada

Government policy‐making affecting Indigenous communities in Canada has often been met with stiff resistance from Indigenous leadership. We examine multilevel governance as an alternate model for Aboriginal policy‐making by examining a particular case study: the process leading up to the 2005 Kelowna Accord. We find that although multilevel governance may have the potential to produce highly desirable outcomes, its emergence seems to depend heavily on political agency. Meaningful and enduring change to Aboriginal policy‐making will therefore likely require significant institutional adjustments to the Canadian federation.     

Oversight and accountability for serious incidents in Canada: Who polices the police?

This study examines the agencies responsible for investigating when a member of the public is seriously injured, is killed or experiences other serious and potentially criminal actions at the hands of police officers in Canada. The article takes a comprehensive approach by examining all police oversight agencies that are responsible for responding to and investigating allegations of police criminality—eight organizations, across nine jurisdictions. The study integrates insights from public administration and police accountability literature and examines the structures and administration of the agencies. The study provides a critical assessment of the state of police oversight for serious incidents in Canada, it identifies agency outputs (including case substantiation), levels of independence, efforts at transparency, and considers the challenges in attempting to hold police accountable in Canada.     

The Significant Development of the Exclusionary Rule of Illegal Evidence in China: from the Perspective of the Promulgation of “The Rule of Strict Exclusion of Illegal Evidence”

The function and value of exclusionary rule of illegal evidence lie not only in the prevention of mistrial, but also in the manifestation of procedural justice, the regulation of judicial conduct and the emphasis on the protection of human rights. The promulgation of “the rule of strict exclusion of illegal evidence” has made a positive response to the practical problems during the implementation of exclusionary rule of illegal evidence. Many provisions in this rule are much more strict than before, such as further defining the scope of illegal oral evidence, clarifying the method of excluding the repeated confessions, emphasizing the timeliness of exclusion of illegal evidence and the synchronization of supervision of investigation, attaching the importance of collection and application of process evidence, and exerting the review of the legitimacy of evidence in pre-trial conference. After the promulgation of “the rule of strict exclusion of illegal evidence”, we should continue to focus on the implementation of exclusionary rule of illegal evidence, ensuring its function of post-punishment and illegal prevention.     

An analysis of changes in stakeholder accountability among Canadian WCBs: 1998–2008

Abstract: Many essential public services in Canada have been delegated to agencies. The semi-autonomous nature of these agencies, often operating at arm's-length from government, leads to difficulties in holding them sufficiently accountable. Of the many public-sector agencies in Canada, workers' compensation boards (WCBs) are arguably the most autonomous in comparison to other government agencies such as health care and social services. In their article, derived from an earlier background paper written in 1998, Therese Jennissen, Michael Prince and Saul Schwartz (2000) called for increased WCB accountability to elected officials. The aim of the current article is, first, to conduct a document review to determine the extent to which the recommendations made by Jennissen and her colleagues have been adopted at the national level and, secondly, through a case study, to examine the implications of these changes at the Newfoundland Workplace Health, Safety and Compensation Commission, where many of the recommendations have been implemented.     

Who speaks for whom? Implementing the Crown's duty to consult in the case of divided Aboriginal political structures

The Supreme Court of Canada has determined that the Crown has a duty to consult Aboriginal peoples on government decisions that may adversely affect their rights, but the Court did not define who the Crown should consult on behalf of Aboriginal people when two or more groups claim the right to speak for them. For government officials attempting to fulfil the Crown's duty, this can create challenges. This article reviews the jurisprudence and scholarly commentary to provide some guidance to government officials on how to effectively implement the Crown's duty to consult as a practical matter of public administration.     

Basic Social Security and Welfare Governance in the Context of Equal Share of Public Services: A Study Based on the Telephone Interview of the Public in Zhejiang During 2014—2016

Based on three years’telephone interview data during 2014-2016, this paper made a study on the evaluation of the public in Zhejiang on the development of basic social security from perspectives of family income, health care and elderly care, and found that during the period the public’s evaluation on the basic social security continues to rise, the gap of the evaluation results between different groups is narrowed obviously, and the government grassroots organizations become the preferred channel of social assistance of vulnerable groups. But it also found that the development gaps among structures of basic social security and among different social groups still required attention. From the perspective of the theory of welfare governance, this paper argued that we should give full play to the unique function of the government, non-government, market, and informal organizations, and collaborate with those organizations to achieve the goal of equal share of the economic and social development results among various social groups.     

Use of systematic literature reviews in Canadian government departments: Where do we need to go?

The article reports on ongoing reflections on how to improve the structures and processes by which relevant research findings produced outside Canadian government departments (for example, in universities, think tanks or other research institutions) can be more effectively found, assessed for potential biases, synthesized and disseminated to provide support to government analysts, advisers and decision makers. The focus is on how to structure and routinize research use by government analysts and advisers within a large Canadian department that has a strategic research directorate and many program divisions. Our starting point is the current situation where literature reviews that are produced and used by government analysts and advisers do not correspond to the systematic review standards. We discuss four alternative models. In two models, the whole production process would be controlled from within the department. In the other two models, external actors such as university‐based teams or independent non‐governmental evidence centres would carry the leadership in producing those reviews.     

The Prime Minister's Office: Catalyst or Cabal? Aspects of the development of the Office in Canada and some thoughts about its future†

Abstract. Surprisingly, little has been written in Canada about the Prime Minis-tership. Even less has been written about the Prime Minister's Office. This is not so surprising. A large and active Prime Minister's Office is a recent phenomenon having no precedent in British or Canadian political practice. Constitutionally, it might be argued that a Prime Minister's Office should not exist at all. The fact is, however, that it does exist in Canada, and that in recent years it has grown substantially in size and influence. This paper is in two parts. The first part outlines some of the key changes that have taken place in the Office since the election of Prime Minister Trudeau in 1968. The second part outlines some of the problems associated with this growth and suggests some ways in which the Office might be strengthened while ensuring that it respects the fundamental principles of parliamentary government. This paper concludes that the Prime Minister's Office, as it has developed in Canada during the past five years, performs a largely constructive role and that with certain adaptations and safeguards it will cmtinue to provide highly useful assistance to the Prime Minister in the execution of his increasingly varied and complex range of responsibilities. Sommaire. Il est surprenant de constater qu'il a été peu écrit au Canada sur le poste de Premier Ministre et encore moins sur le bureau du Premier Ministre. Ceci est moins étonnant. L'existence d'un bureau important et actif est un phénomène récent qui n'a pas de précédent dans la pratique politique britannique ou canadienne. Du point de vue constitutionnel, on pourrait soutenir que le bureau du Premier Ministre n'existe pas. Il n'en reste pas moins que son existence est un fait au Canada et qu'au cours des dernières années, ses proportions et son influence n'ont fait qu'augmenter. Cette communication est en deux parties. Dans la première, l'auteur expose les changements fondamentaux survenus dans le bureau depuis l'élection du Premier Ministre Trudeau en 1968. Dans la deuxième, il expose certains des problèmes qu'a suscité cette croissance et propose différents moyens de renforcer le bureau tout en s'assurant qu'il respecte les principes fondamentaux de gouvernement parlementaire. L'auteur conclut en déclarant que le bureau du Premier Ministre, tel qu'il s'est développé au Canada au cours des cinq dernières années joue un rôle surtout constructif et qu'avec certains ajustements et sauvegardes, il pourra continuer à fournir une aide extrêmement appréciable au Premier Ministre, dans l'exercice des fonctions de plus variées et complexes qui sont les siennes.     

Review of the Two-Order Construct of Public Service Motivation: Reflective or Formative?——Evidence Based on Data from Five Cities in Eastern and Central China

A construct is a phenomenon of theoretical interest, and is divided into reflective construct and formative construct. Public service motivation is a constructive or reflective construct, and there is some consensus among the academic circles that the first order of public service motivation is reflective.But there is a debate about the nature of the two order construction. It is found that the predictive ability and the degree of fit of the "first order reflective and second order reflective" conception of public service motivation in structural equation model are higher than the "first order reflective and second order formative".The direction of the relationship between public service motivation and its first-order potential variables in the context of grassroots public administration in China is from public service motivation to first-order potential variables, and public service motivation should be defined as a "first-order reflective second-order reflective" construct. In the future, researchers in public administration should carefully consider the nature of the constructs of public management and the effect of the nature of the constructs on the model.     

“What do we want and how do we get there”: A comparative content analysis of First Nations Comprehensive Community Plans in British Columbia

First Nations are important regional development actors, and yet their development ambitions and goals have often been ignored or poorly understood by settler governments. Since 2004, the Canadian federal government has supported First Nations governments and Tribal Councils to develop Comprehensive Community Plans (CCPs)—community planning documents that are meant to set priorities and guide development in the medium to long term. This study employs a quantitative content analysis of all publicly available CCPs and related strategic planning documents in British Columbia in order to understand development priorities and in doing so, reveals a mismatch between the interests of First Nations and settler governments.