Evidence and equity: Struggles over federal employment equity policy in Canada, 1984–95

Abstract: This article traces debates about federal employment equity policy in Canada in the 1980s and 1990s, focusing specifically on the role of data and statistics in policy‐making. The authors interpret policy‐makers' extensive use of evidence‐based policy instruments in the implementation of employment equity as an attempt to offer a technical solution to the deeply politicized problem of workplace discrimination. By exploring policy debates from the Royal Commission on Equality in Employment (the Abella Commission) (1984) to the passage of the reformed Employment Equity Act in 1995, the authors show how recourse to evidence‐based deliberation failed to contain political conflict, because the meaning and use of statistical data became the object of political struggle among the main policy stakeholders. The article concludes by considering the implications of this case study for the broader comparative debate on the role of evidence‐based methods in policy‐making.     

Invisible populations: LGBTQ people and federal health policy in Canada

This article reviews the state of federal health policy discourse toward the LGBTQ population in Canada. Despite the advent of greater attention to diversity and gender mainstreaming in federal public policy and the shift to legalized rights protections for LGBTQ people, symbolized by policies such as same‐sex marriage, LGBTQ health concerns continue to be marginalized in federal health policy. Based on a systematic review of federal policy documents and websites as well as a small number of interviews with federal policy‐makers, the research demonstrates the extent to which LGBTQ health concerns are rendered invisible in federal health policy. The article suggests several ways in which a commitment to gender‐based policy analysis could be expanded to take account of diverse health needs of LGBTQ Canadians.     

Policy analytical capacity and evidence‐based policy‐making: Lessons from Canada

Abstract: Evidence‐based policy‐making represents a contemporary effort to reform or re‐structure policy processes in order to prioritize evidentiary or data‐based decision‐making. Like earlier efforts in the “policy analysis movement,” its aim is to avoid or minimize policy failures caused by a mismatch between government expectations and actual, on‐the‐ground conditions through the provision of greater amounts of policy‐relevant information. A significant factor affecting the ability of policy‐makers to engage in evidence‐based policy‐making pertains to both governmental and non‐governmental “policy analytical capacity.” That is, governments require a reasonably high level of policy analytical capacity to perform the tasks associated with managing the policy process in order to implement evidence‐based policy‐making and avoid several of the most common sources of policy failures. Recent studies, however, suggest that, even in advanced countries such as Canada, the level of policy analytical capacity found in many governments and non‐governmental actors is low, potentially contributing to both a failure of evidence‐based policy‐making as well as effectively dealing with many complex contemporary policy challenges. Sommaire: L'élaboration de politiques axée sur des éléments probants représente un effort contemporain de réforme ou de structuration des processus de politiques dans le but de donner la prioritéà la prise de décisions s'appuyant sur les preuves ou fondée sur les données. Comme pour les efforts antérieurs du « mouvement d'analyse de politiques », le but est d'éviter ou de minimiser les échecs de politiques causés par un décalage entre les attentes du gouvernement et les conditions réelles sur le terrain, grâce à la disposition de plus amples informations pertinentes aux politiques. Un facteur important touchant à l'aptitude des élaborateurs de politiques à s'engager dans une élaboration de politiques axée sur les éléments probants est liéà la « capacité d'analyse de politiques » aussi bien gouvernementale que non gouvernementale. C'est‐à‐dire que les gouvernements exigent un niveau raisonnablement élevé de capacité d'analyse de politiques en vue d'exécuter les tâches associées à la gestion du processus politique pour mettre en œuvre l'élaboration de politiques axée sur les éléments probants et éviter ainsi plusieurs sources courantes d'échecs de politiques. Néanmoins, des études récentes laissent entendre que, même dans les pays développés comme le Canada, le niveau de capacité d'analyse de politiques observé dans de nombreux gouvernements et chez un grand nombre d'acteurs non gouvernementaux est faible ; cela pourrait éventuellement contribuer à la fois à un échec de l'élaboration de politiques axées sur les éléments probants ainsi qu'à l'échec de régler efficacement de nombreux problèmes contemporains complexes en matière de politiques.     

Do Canadian university students in Political Science and Public Administration learn to perform critical appraisal?

The ability to critically appraise empirical studies of any type is a prerequisite to evidence‐informed policy making. We scanned the syllabi of all Canadian university undergraduate and graduate programs in public affairs, public administration, public policy and political science. Our findings suggest that evidence‐informed policy is not yet institutionalized in most public administration and political science training curricula. We conducted a systematic review of prospective experimental and quasi‐experimental studies examining the effect of university courses aimed at training social sciences students in critical appraisal, but did not find such a study.     

Rethinking policy capacity in Canada: The role of parties and election platforms in government policy‐making

Abstract: There is an ongoing debate in western industrialized democracies about the genesis of government policy capacity. This article examines this under‐explored issue by looking at the election campaign commitments made by political parties. The author reviews the election policy manifestos of the parties that governed in Canada from 1984 to 2008, some of the proposed policy changes advanced during election campaigns, and the actions taken by governing parties to fulfil those commitments. This research demonstrates that parties were relatively unconstrained in advancing detailed election platforms to the electorate and that they were able to fulfil, or partially fulfil, those commitments at fairly significant levels – particularly incumbent governments, who could draw on their governing experience and the policy advice given by the public service. The author contends that governing parties in Canada possess a high degree of policy‐making capacity and that they have the ability both to advance and implement fairly detailed plans for governing. These findings confirm that political parties are an important source of policy‐making capacity and that such capacity is enhanced by public‐service input.     

Early childhood education and care reform in Canadian provinces: Understanding the role of experts and evidence in policy change

In over half of Canada's provinces, a recent commission has recommended major reform of ECEC systems; in response, provincial governments in nearly all cases have chosen to implement full‐day kindergarten funded by the province and delivered through public schools. We analyze the commission processes that led to changes to investigate the relationship between experts, policy makers, and policy outcomes. Our analysis of processes in BC, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, and PEI leads us to conclude that governments rarely fully implement the programs supported by the evidence base and recommended by their own experts. Instead, recent policy changes have been driven by a highly selective and path‐dependent approach to the complex issue of early childhood care and education.     

Treaty federalism as a model of policy making: Comparing Canada and the European Union

Systematic analyses of Canada and the EU as comparable federal systems have been neglected for a variety of methodological reasons. Most importantly, neither body fits the mould of the dominant model of the American federal state. A revised conceptual framework can show, however, that Canada and the EU both provide a similar institutional and procedural environment for policy making: powers are shared rather than divided; policy directions are determined by executive negotiation rather than parliamentary deliberation; unanimity takes precedence over majority rule; and inter‐regional competition is moderated by a commitment to equalization.     

Cities and places in provincial policy agendas

This article uses a new dataset of coded Alberta Throne Speeches from 1906 to 2017 to identify patterns of provincial policy attention to place and urban place across policy issues and time. We discuss three main findings. First, provincial attention to place and urban place is influenced by policy domain: place‐based attention is generally absent in some policy domains, such as macroeconomic policy, and prevalent in others, such as health care. Second, place‐based attention is patterned over time, with a noticeable peak in the post‐war “province‐building” years and distinct troughs in other periods. Finally, we discuss the related but distinct patterns of attention to place and urban place across policy domains and time.     

Evening the keel: Measuring and responding to precarity in the Canadian labour economy

This article argues that misalignment between the realities of work in the new economy and the regulations is having negative health and social implications at all levels of Canadian society. Remedying this requires drastic reshaping of policy approaches, but current laws and employment norms presume the labour market is a static entity. Policymakers should focus on improving how labour market data is collected for producing evidence‐based recommendations, and on re‐evaluating neoclassical economic assumptions underpinning this outdated framework. We argue the expansion of precarious work is reshaping the Canadian economy and society, and provide recommendations for data, policy and administration to address this trend.     

The federal government's banks: Financial services and public policy

Internationally, interest in and research on state‐owned enterprises (SOEs) have increased significantly, particularly in the developing world, where they play a vital role in national economies. The evolution of Canadian SOEs is, for the most part, largely absent from this literature. This article analyzes and evaluates the performance of three SOEs in the financial sector owned and operated by the federal government: Export Development Canada (EDC), the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) and Farm Credit Canada (FCC). The article seeks to evaluate the performance of these commercially oriented hybrid entities which are policy (and politically) sensitive to the needs of their single shareholder. There is evidence that these firms take on higher‐risk investments than their private sector counterparts, in addition to performing other politically significant policy roles. There is also evidence that, as publicly owned entities, they enjoy some significant advantages over other actors in the sector.     

Spending reviews and the Government of Canada: From episodic to institutionalized capabilities and repertoires

Following surges of spending and staff hiring to address the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trudeau government announced a strategic policy review in the 2022 Budget to secure savings of $6 billion. There has been little apparent progress by May 2023 and opaque communications. This is surprising because Canada was once considered an international exemplar for spending reviews, needs to learn from the pandemic experience, has a worrisome medium-to-long-term federal spending trajectory, and the governance and economic context has rapidly evolved. This article identifies different kinds of spending reviews and design considerations, reviews Canada's experience with reviews since the early 1980s, considers recent OECD experience and exemplars, and argues that its spending reviews have become increasingly selective and closed. We suggest the Canadian government should institutionalize annual spending reviews, which can be scaled up or down, and that this points to more fundamental issues for reform and building a new governance culture.     

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.     

Research use capacity in provincial governments

Despite advances in research‐informed public policy, research remains underutilized in government. To develop a firmer understanding of governmental capacity to use research in decision making, we investigate Canadian provincial ministries overseeing education, higher education, and science and technology. The findings from semi‐structured interviews indicate that capacity to generate and access research is limited. However, we find evidence of a recent change in which provincial agencies sought to bolster capacity with research use strategies and by leveraging relationships with researchers. Leaders’ support for well‐coordinated research use initiatives also seems critical to instilling a culture of research‐informed decision making in government agencies.     

The limits of learning: Policy evaluation and the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation

This article reviews recent efforts by the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation (MRI) to measure and evaluate the success of its policies. It argues that these efforts have been inhibited by changes in the ministry's political context and the inherent complexity of the issues that innovation policies seek to address. The innovation strategy pursued by the ministry incorporates an element of mediated causality in its program logic, which complicates efforts to determine policy outcomes. When compounded by a changing normative context for judging success, this inherent complexity makes it very difficult to accurately determine and learn from the MRI's policy outcomes. The article concludes by suggesting a preliminary process of inquiry that might address some of these difficulties.     

Extending the realm of health policy with a “new public health” approach: A comparative look at the Canadian and Swedish national experiences

Abstract: Modern health‐care systems in OECD countries were built around hospitals and the preferences of organized medicine and are largely focused on acute‐care services and services provided by doctors. Starting in the early 1980s, however, the professionalization in several countries of trades traditionally involved in health promotion, together with the constitution of a group of researchers in social epidemiology and the corresponding development of specialized schools and research centres, brought new actors into health policy‐making worldwide. This led to the extension of contemporary health policy beyond the post‐war bio‐medical model into population health promotion and social policy. This article describes and analyses the means (and limitations) used by Canada and Sweden for extending the action radius of health policies. Results show that national policies in health promotion beyond the health sector contributed above all to developing and legitimizing an official discourse that presents social problems as factors affecting social inequalities in health. Health promotion represented a tool for maintaining central social norms, as national governments were re‐defining their role in social policy. Sommaire: Les systèmes modernes de soins de santé dans les pays de l'OCDE ont été construits autour d'hôpitaux et des préférences de la médecine organisée et sont essentiellement axés sur les services de soins intensifs de courte durée et les services médicaux. Cependant, depuis le début des années 1980, la professionnalisation des métiers traditionnellement impliqués dans la promotion de la santé survenue dans plusieurs pays, associée à la constitution d'un groupe de chercheurs en épidémiologie sociale et le développement d'écoles et de centres de recherche spécialisés ont introduit de nouveaux acteurs dans l'élaboration de politiques en matière de santéà l'échelle mondiale. Cela a entraîné une transformation de la politique de la santé contemporaine, qui a dépassé le modèle biomédical d'après‐guerre pour s'étendre à la promotion de la santé de la population et à la politique sociale. Le présent article décrit et analyse les moyens utilisés par le Canada et la Suède pour étendre le rayon d'action des politiques de la santé et les limites auxquelles ils font face. Les résultats indiquent que les politiques nationales visant la promotion de la santé au‐delà du secteur de la santé ont contribué avant tout à développer un discours officiel qui présente les problèmes sociaux comme des facteurs ayant une incidence sur les inégalités sociales de la santé. La promotion de la santé a représenté un outil pour maintenir des normes sociales nationales, alors que les gouvernements centraux redéfinissaient leur rôle en matière de politique sociale.     

Explaining the resurgence of Métis rights: Making the most of “windows of opportunity”

Characterized as “Canada's forgotten people” since their defeat in the 1885 Battle of Batoche, the Métis have recently re‐emerged on Canada's policy agenda. How did the Métis, once vilified as traitors of Confederation, come to re‐position themselves as a rights‐bearing Aboriginal group in the Canadian federation? In this article, we apply John Kingdon's (1995) multiple streams model to help explain the resurgence of Métis rights on Canada's contemporary policy agenda. We argue that the changing legal and political landscape that surrounded Canada's crisis of unity provided a window of opportunity that allowed Métis policy entrepreneurs to bring the issue of Métis rights onto Canada's policy agenda.     

Federal policy ideas and involvement in Canadian urban transit, 2002‐2017

Although provincial and local governments bear primary responsibility for urban transit projects and operations in Canada, the Government of Canada engages intermittently in this policy field, mainly through research and short‐term funding programs. This article analyzes federal policy concerning urban transit over the period 2002‐2017, with a substantive focus on policy ideas—the cognitive and normative concepts that provide direction for, and shape the perceived legitimacy of, policy choices. Through a thematic content analysis of policy documents, this article explicates the paradigms, programmatic foci, frames and public sentiments that have underpinned federal urban transit policy over this 15‐year period.     

What are the challenges of multilevel governance for urban sustainability? Evidence from Ottawa and Canada's national capital region

Urban sustainability is a priority for cities, challenging public administrators to coordinate action on environmental policy, economic development and social policy. Multilevel governance is now a popular theoretical framework but research must illuminate the constraints on local administrators. This case study reviews efforts of public administrators in the City of Ottawa and Canada's national capital region to implement sustainability policies with collaborative governance, but new governance relationships are constrained by traditional intergovernmental relations. Case study research illuminates the challenges of multilevel governance for local governments and provides insights on the pursuit of sustainability with environmental programs, land use, and urban and development by Crown corporations.     

Towards community‐based monitoring in Manitoba's hog industry

Abstract: Rapid changes in the hog industry in Manitoba have resulted in a gap in the province's resource and environmental policy regime. Concerns about potential, uncertain environmental impacts and an outdated regulatory framework led to a moratorium on new hog industry operations and a provincial hearing. Based on extensive literature, documentary and legislative reviews, this article explores the role of monitoring, and the potential for community‐based monitoring specifically, to address these policy issues. Given the non‐point nature of the pollution in question, the social and economic conditions in southern Manitoba and the strengths of community‐based monitoring initiatives, this approach is a promising solution. Furthermore, the existing legal framework provides an existing grounding through which the program could be vested with authority. Sommaire: Des changements rapides dans l'industrie porcine au Manitoba ont entraîné un fossé entre la politique des ressources et celle de l'environnement de la province. Les inquiétudes au sujet d'éventuelles conséquences environnementales et d'un cadre de réglementation dépassé ont conduit à un moratoire sur les nouvelles opérations dans l'industrie porcine et à une audience provinciale. En s'appuyant sur une importante documentation et sur des études documentaires et législatives, cet article approfondit le rôle de la surveillance, et plus particulièrement le rôle possible de la surveillance communautaire, pour s'attaquer à ces questions de politiques. Étant donné la nature non ponctuelle de la pollution en question, les conditions sociales et économiques dans le sud du Manitoba et la force des initiatives communautaires, cette approche est une solution prometteuse. En outre, le cadre juridique actuel fournit une base existante qui permettrait au programme d'être investi d'une certaine autorité.     

Models of funding and reimbursement in health care: A conceptual framework

Abstract: What is the best way to pay providers to deliver health services? The research evidence strongly suggests that there is no single answer; rather, one must consider the incentives and disincentives inherent in alternative health‐care funding models. This article suggests a conceptual framework for categorizing payment mechanisms that highlights different policy options and their associated tradeoffs. It concentrates on the following: distinctions between need, demand, and utilization as they affect the rationale for government involvement; models of the possible funding flows (two‐way, three‐way, and four‐way) as they affect policy levers; and implications of various approaches to payment. The framework is then used to clarify the advantages and disadvantages of particular approaches to financing health care and to clarify the tradeoffs involved. Sommaire: Quel est le meilleur moyen de payer les fournisseurs pour leur prestation de services de santé? Les données probantes de la recherche laissent fortement entendre qu'il n'existe pas une seule et unique réponse; il faut plutôt tenir compte des incitatifs et des désincitatifs inhérents aux autres modèles de financement des soins de santé. Pour classer par catégories les mécanismes de paiement, le présent article propose un cadre conceptuel qui souligne différentes options de politiques et les compromis qui leur sont associés. Il se concentre sur : les distinctions entre besoin, demande et utilisation qui ont une incidence sur la justification de l'intervention du gouvernement; les modèles des flux de financement possibles (à deux, trois et quatre directions) qui ont une incidence sur les leviers politiques; et les implications de diverses approches à l'égard du paiement. Le cadre est alors utilisé pour préciser les avantages et les inconvénients des approches particulières concernant le financement des soins de santé, et pour clarifier les compromis impliqués.