Mowat Centre

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/1807/96182

The Mowat Centre is an independent public policy think tank located at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto and Ontario’s non-partisan, evidence-based voice on public policy. We undertake collaborative applied policy research, propose innovative research-driven recommendations, and engage in public dialogue on Canada’s most important national issues. Our policy areas of expertise are intergovernmental economic and social policy, state transformation, energy policy and not-for-profit policy. The Mowat Centre seeks to inform and revitalize Canada’s public policy agenda from the Ontario perspective, given new Canadian and global realities. Our research focuses on the federal policy frameworks and strategies that will most strongly affect Ontario’s prosperity and quality of life in the next century. The Mowat Centre ceased operations on June 30th, 2019, as result of the cancellation of its funding agreement with the Government of Ontario.

News

Mowat Centre website

Browse

Now showing 1 - 20 of 182

Race to the Top: Developing an Inclusive Growth Agenda for Canada
(Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation, 2018-04) Johal, Sunil; Yalnizyan, Armine
Governments around the world are coming to grips with the realization that growth needs to lead to more broadly-shared prosperity. There is a growing recognition that many of the benefits of globalization and free trade policies have not been broadly shared. This report provides a comprehensive and applied analysis of “inclusive growth” as a means for sharing economic gains more broadly and equitably throughout society. In our increasingly digital and global world, there is fierce competition for talent and capital that will be won by the most inclusive jurisdictions. Inclusive growth strategies, the report finds, enable governments to effectively manage disruption and the transition to an increasingly digital economy in a fair manner that generates well-paying, stable jobs. The report also finds that an inclusive growth path is particularly important for Canada. Canada is facing a prolonged period of little or no growth (“slowth”) with clear challenges related to income inequality, wage stagnation and a growth in precarious forms of work. Our analysis shows that reliance upon another commodity boom, export-led growth or further gains from increasing women’s employment is, for various reasons, unlikely to resolve these challenges. We explore a variety of options for shaping both how markets perform (pre-distribution) and how government policies are developed (redistribution), and provide specific recommendations to policymakers on developing an inclusive growth agenda for Canada.
Robots, Revenues & Responses: Ontario and the Future of Work
(Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation, 2018-07) Johal, Sunil; Thirgood, Jordan; Crawford-Urban, Michael; Alwani, Kiran; Dubrovinsky, Mati
What effects might artificial intelligence, the sharing economy, and other disruptive technologies have on government revenues? A new Mowat Centre report examines how taxation systems based on residency are ill-suited for a digital, global economy. Recent years have witnessed rapid growth in technological innovation, from the proliferation of sharing platforms such as Airbnb to the advent of blockchain and recent advances in artificial intelligence and big data. The potentially transformative impacts of these technologies for both workers and regulatory frameworks have been well documented. Less attention has been given to how these developments might impact government tax revenues. Funding for core public services is primarily derived from revenues collected from personal income taxes, sales taxes, corporate taxes, and payroll taxes. This tax base is likely to come under increasing pressure in an environment of global superstar firms with relatively few employees that are headquartered abroad, and global labour platforms that could upend the compensation model of a variety of key service sectors. Robots, Revenues and Responses: Ontario and the Future of Work outlines key macroeconomic, labour market and technology trends, and the state of Canada’s social architecture. The report also explores how these trends interact with the primary sources of government revenue. Four plausible future scenarios based on the rate of technological disruption and degree of institutional response are developed as a starting point for consideration of next steps. The report concludes by presenting a number of policy options that governments may consider in response to this uncertain future, ranging from how to ensure revenues are collected effectively, to innovative partnerships with business and modernizing service delivery frameworks.
Rethinking Municipal Finance for the New Economy
(Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation, 2019-04) Johal, Sunil; Kiran, Alwani; Thirgood, Jordann; Spiro, Peter
While ongoing economic and employment trends are constraining government revenues globally, municipalities in Canada face additional challenges due to their unique governance and fiscal context. Our latest report offers the first systematic analysis of the impact of these trends on municipal revenues, and identifies ways in which municipalities can modernize their approaches to revenue generation for the 21st century economy. The study highlights that municipal revenue tools in Canada are inordinately reliant on land-based approaches to value that are becoming less relevant in a borderless digital economy built on intangibles. As goods-producing sectors wane, workplaces shrink, mobile work becomes more popular and the knowledge economy gains momentum, non-residential property-tax – a key revenue source – as a proportion of total tax-revenues is threatened. As a result, reliance on the residential property tax base is increasing. How should municipalities respond? The key will be modernizing municipal revenue generation to reduce reliance on land-based tax sources. But this is complicated by the fact that municipalities in Canada are ‘creatures of the province’ with limited authority, and cannot introduce new revenue tools without provincial approval. In light of these realities, this study presents a range of strategic and tactical approaches that municipalities should consider.
New Rules for the Game: Rebooting Canada’s Competition Regime for the Digital Economy
(Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation, 2019-05) Urban, Michael C.
What is the future of competition in the new digital economy and how well-prepared for this future are Canada and its governments? Mowat’s latest report cuts through superficial narratives that currently surround these questions to take a more in-depth look at the policy reality. Recent reports have pointed to how the meteoric emergence of superstar digital firms such as Google or Amazon has coincided with trends across several economic indicators that show competition declining in a variety of markets. Commentators are increasingly arguing that these phenomena, which appear particularly pronounced in the digital economy, are interlinked and are likely impacting global innovation in a negative way. We examine the evidence for this argument and evaluate the threats to innovation posed by declining competition, both present and potential. We identify a series of recent phenomena that are impeding competition and harming innovation, and highlight a number of potential threats to the competitive landscape. These developments, we find, are likely to have negative impacts on Canada – if left unaddressed. But government and civil society actors in Canada can still take action to improve competition in the digital economy. We set out 26 policy recommendations that would help counter these impacts, looking at Canada’s data regime, algorithmic regulation, amendments to Canada’s Competition Act and related legislation, and government capacity. Canada should stop simply following the leader. Instead, it should recognize where the puck is going – and get there first.
Official Bilingualism at 50: Are We Taking Full Advantage of Canada’s Linguistic Duality?
(Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation, 2019-05) Parkin, Andrew
As Canada celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Official Languages Act, Canadians still widely support its policy of official bilingualism. But our new analysis of 2019 opinion data finds that the recognition of the importance of bilingualism and multilingualism, in general, is eroding. Official bilingualism, the policy that citizens can get federal services in either English or French, is supported by 82 per cent of Canadians, according to the landmark Confederation of Tomorrow 2019 Survey of Canadians. Support is at 70 per cent or higher in every province, and is strong among both francophones and anglophones. It is also strong among both younger and older Canadians, among immigrants and among Indigenous Peoples. And it is virtually unchanged since 2001. However, support for the notion that it is important for younger generations to learn a second language, while remaining high, has declined since 2001. This decline is most pronounced among anglophones and, most worryingly, among younger Canadians. In an increasingly interconnected economy where multilingual skills are a competitive asset, this is a disquieting trend. The anniversary of the Official Languages Act provides a valuable opportunity to renew the discussion in Canada about the importance of bilingualism and multilingualism in the 21st century.
Distributed Energy Resources: The Role of Regional Planning, New Benefit-Cost Methodologies and the Competitive Landscape
(Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation, 2019-04) Sommerville, Paul B.
What does the advent of distributed energy resources (DERs) mean for electricity systems in Ontario and beyond? Our latest report offers a comprehensive analysis of the opportunities and challenges presented by DERs, and analyzes what utilities and regulators should do in response. DERs are smaller-scale electricity-producing and storage resources or controllable loads directly connected to a local distribution system or a host facility within the local distribution system. They can include solar panels, combined heat and power plants, electricity storage, small natural gas-fuelled generators, electric vehicles and controllable loads, such as HVAC systems and electric water heaters. The report analyzes how DERs affect traditional regional planning, the use of net metering in electricity systems, competition within electricity systems, and customer choice. It emphasizes the importance of subjecting DERs to rigorous benefit-cost analysis. And it highlights the financial risks and rewards DERs present to local distribution companies and regulatory factors impacting DER support from them. The report concludes that DERs may offer an opportunity for the renewal and transformation of traditional electricity system, but that care needs to be taken to ensure that their integration is appropriately assessed and evaluated from a system benefit/cost point of view. The most reliable vehicle for achieving this opportunity is a regional planning activity that enables the focused participation of all stakeholders within a transparent valuation
Committing to Action: Next Steps for Canada’s Evidence Ecosystem
(Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation, 2019-03) Lalande, Lisa; Cave, Joanna; Jog, Adam
How to ensure that social policy decisions are consistently and effectively guided by the best possible evidence? Mowat NFP’s latest report crystalizes the lessons learned from the Innovation in Evidence conference and related research and convening activities to tackle this challenge.Identifying key challenges and promising practices related to how evidence is generated, translated, adopted, funded and innovated, this report charts a path forward towards a stronger evidence ecosystem in Canada. It recommends actions that each stakeholder group in this ecosystem (governments, funders, intermediary organizations and service delivery organizations) can take to contribute to this effort. It also maps out the essential conditions for success, starting from the fostering of relationships, trust and meaningful engagement. The decisions made by social sector organizations, funders and policymakers can have a profound and lasting impact on people’s lives and the communities they live in. It is incumbent on all stakeholders to ensure these decisions are the best that they can be. Committing to action towards a stronger evidence ecosystem in Canada, the report concludes, is the next step forward.
Combining School & Work: An Update on Postsecondary Student Employment in Canada
(Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation, 2019-03) Parkin, Andrew; Seward, Brad; Truong, Khuong
Postsecondary students have been increasingly combining education and employment as a way of enhancing skills and not only as a way of managing costs. This Mowat note summarizes what descriptive statistics from Statistics Canada’s most recent Longitudinal and International Survey of Adults (LISA) data tell us about students’ work experiences while in postsecondary education. We find that: Combining work and studies is a common experience for postsecondary students. Fewer than two in five PSE students report holding a job while enrolled that is related to their studies. Nearly one in two students who combined employment with their PSE studies say it provided them with knowledge and experience needed to help them obtain their first career-related job. Students with higher literacy, numeracy and problem-solving scores – who are less likely to face difficulties transitioning into the labour force – are more likely to work while in PSE.
When is a Strategy not Strategic? The Federal Government’s Role in International Education
(Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation, 2019-03) Parkin, Andrew
In November 2018, the federal government announced its intention to unilaterally develop a new international education strategy. This report argues that it would be more effective for the federal government to eschew grand strategies and instead use international education strategically in advancing other, and more properly federal, policy goals. Encouraging more Canadians to study abroad and more international students to come to Canada – two main goals of international education – is laudable. But as the report shows, the main levers to achieve these goals are in the hands of provincial governments and educational institutions. This is why the federal government’s previous international education strategy, launched as recently as 2014, had little impact. A federal focus on Canadians studying abroad is unlikely to fare any better for the same reason, argues the report. However, there are a number of more properly federal policy goals that could be advanced by strategic use of international education. For instance, the federal government could focus on supporting international students from areas of the world facing instability or crisis, advancing Canada’s foreign policy goals of encouraging stability and human rights worldwide. Such initiatives constitute a more effective – and more strategic – federal approach to international education.
Portraits 2017: Regional Differences in Ontario
(Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation, 2019-02) Alwani, Kiran; Parkin, Andrew
Most Ontarians believe that urban and rural Canadians have different values. Our new analysis of data from an Ontario-wide survey conducted in November 2017 shows that, on most issues in Ontario, such an urban-rural divide is not evident. On many questions related to public policy choices, we find that the differences in preferences across the province’s regions are either relatively modest, or not reducible to ones between big cities and small towns. Only in a handful of cases – primarily on how local economies are doing and how they are impacted by international trade agreements – do such difference align along urban and rural lines. Much more frequently, the views and values of urban and suburban Ontarians outside Toronto are closer to those of rural Ontarians. Indeed, the most consistent pattern we found is that, on many (but not all) issues, the views and values of Torontonians are an outlier when compared to other regions of the province. This is especially noticeable on issues such as immigration, climate change, and taxes. At the same time, it is important not to exaggerate the extent of these differences. Toronto stands out on many questions but by no means all. And in every case, there are significant numbers of people across all regions who think alike.
Untapped Pool or Leaky Pipeline? Female Involvement in the ICT Sector
(Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation, 2019-02) Seward, Brad; Truong, Khuong; Kapadia, Deepti
There are fewer women than men in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) professions in Canada. What drives this trend? Why is this a policy problem, and what can be done to address it? This report, the first from the Research Initiative on Education and Skills (RIES), tackles these topics.
Immigration: Ontario’s Uneven Success
(Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation, 2019-01) Parkin, Andrew
Overall, Ontario appears to be a success story in terms of the recruitment and settlement of immigrants. But a closer look at data from the 2016 census reveals that this success is strikingly uneven. This is the key finding from the latest report in Mowat’s A Different Ontario series. Toronto stands out as a global leader in immigration. This risks diverting attention away from the real story the Census tells us: the comparative absence of significant numbers of immigrants, especially recent immigrants, in mid-sized cities and smaller towns in Ontario. This report warns that many of these Ontario communities are not able to attract immigrants in the numbers needed to offset their aging populations. The data also show that while many immigrants in Ontario have above-average labour-market outcomes in terms of employment and earnings, some are not faring as well. Most notably, immigrants who arrived as adults tend to face greater labour-market challenges than those who arrived as children, female immigrants tend to face a less forgiving labour market than their male counterparts, and immigrants with a university education face greater obstacles integrating into the labour market than non-immigrants with similar levels of education. These findings have a number of implications for public policy, detailed in the report. They suggest that Ontario’s immigration strategy should have a more targeted geographic focus, working in tandem with the province’s regional economic development strategies and with interested municipal governments to encourage more immigrants to settle in Ontario’s medium- and smaller-sized communities. In addition, government should employ a suite of targeted initiatives to help immigrants better integrate into the workforce – and to help employers better identify, evaluate and bring the most out of the skills and abilities that immigrants bring with them.
Breaking the Inertia: Repositioning the Government-Sector Partnership
(Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation, 2019-01) Cave, Joanne; Lalande, Lisa
The social sector is a key strategic partner to Canadian governments as they seek to address big challenges like poverty or climate change. But the ways that the federal government works with, regulates, and supports the sector have not kept up. The latest report in Mowat NFP’s Enabling Environment series tackles this reality. The report argues for a more integrated, transformative approach – one that focuses on both the regulating and enabling roles of the federal government. These roles, the report finds, should be situated in separate organizational units. Drawing on international case studies, academic and non-academic literature, and input from both sector leaders and policymakers, the report concludes that the most promising approach is to establish a Social Sector Office as a permanent unit within a key central agency such as the Privy Council. The Office would focus on enabling functions and work in tandem with the existing regulator, the Charities Directorate, and the newly-proposed Social Innovation Council, with roles and mandates embedded in legislation. Finding the best institutional model for enabling the social sector should be accompanied with other achievable reforms, also outlined in the paper. Overall, the recommendations in this paper describe how the federal government can work better with the social sector to attain the best outcomes for Canadians. This would complete a built-to-last transformation of the government-sector partnership that recognizes and deepens the roles each plays in achieving needed social change.
Deconstructing the Gap: Quantifying the Impact of Unprincipled Allocations of Federal Transfers to Ontario
(Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation, 2019-01) Hartmann, Erich
The majority of federal government spending comes in the form of transfer payments to Canada’s provinces and citizens. However, not all of these transfers are allocated in a fair and principled manner. Previous Mowat Centre reports have assessed the fairness of larger transfers such as Equalization and EI. This report goes deeper by examining whether the more than 600 other smaller federal transfers are allocated in a fair and principled manner. A principled transfer is one allocated in a manner that is clear and transparent, is fair to Canadians regardless of where they live, is consistent with the transfer’s policy objectives, and is predictable while having flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances. We find that many of these smaller transfers – which together account for $30B in federal spending – fail this test. In 2017-18 Ontarians received $1B less than they should have received had these transfers been allocated in a principled manner. This includes significant gaps in allocations for economic development ($205M), immigrant settlement ($105M), indigenous health ($83M), indigenous education ($22M), the Gas Tax Fund ($19M), and others. Combined with gaps stemming from larger unprincipled transfers (Equalization, EI, and labour market transfers), Ontarians received $3.7B less in 2017-18 than they should have under principled transfer allocations. The path towards a more principled and fair transfers system is both clear and achievable. As a first step, the federal government should transparently account for its chosen allocation methods. Where deviations from a principles-based allocation exist, these should be explained. Over time, these deviations from principle should be addressed. At the same time, the federal government should ensure that transfers are adequate to meeting federal obligations and that they do not impose overly rigid conditions or unduly leverage funding from provinces. Adequacy and conditionality mean that the gap faced by Ontarians is in fact much higher than $3.7B annually. Addressing this will ensure that federal funding is allocated in the fairest way possible.
Healthy Data: Policy Solutions for Big Data and AI Innovation in Health
(Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation, 2018-12) Stinson, Catherine
The health sector is undergoing a digital revolution, centered on big data and Artificial Intelligence (AI). How should we strike the right balance between encouraging innovation and protecting patients’ rights? The following report tackles this question. Across Canada, Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are being rolled out, and AI researchers are forming partnerships with doctors to collect vast banks of health data for analysis. These changes promise to transform healthcare by enabling the discovery of new treatments, streamlining diagnoses, making care pathways more efficient, cutting costs, giving patients more control over their care and ultimately improving quality of life. But there are risks involved in greater data sharing. Without oversight, we could end up with a system where chronic treatments are prioritized over cures, drug prices are wildly inflated, patients lose control over their personal information and health inequities increase. This is a moment to reflect on emerging trends in the shift to digital services and to set policy directions for the coming expansion of healthcare delivery and research beyond the walls of the health system. This report surveys the changes afoot, weighs projected benefits against potential harms, integrates stakeholder opinion, maps out the policy challenges and proposes actionable recommendations.
Abandoning Silos: How Innovative Governments are Collaborating Horizontally to Solve Complex Problems
(Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation, 2018-12) Urban, Michael C.
The complex challenges that governments at all levels are facing today cut across long-standing and well-defined government boundaries and organizational structures. Solving these problems therefore requires a horizontal approach. This report looks at how such an approach can be successfully implemented. There are a number of key obstacles to effective horizontal collaboration in government, ranging from misaligned professional incentive structures to incompatible computer systems. But a number of governments – Estonia, the UK, and New Zealand – have all recently introduced innovative initiatives that are succeeding in creatively tackling these complex horizontal challenges. In each case, this is delivering critical benefits – reduced government costs and regulatory burdens, getting more out of existing personnel while recruiting more high quality professionals, or providing new and impactful data-driven insights that are helping improve the quality of human services. How are they achieving this? We answer this question by using an analytical framework organized along three fundamental dimensions: governance (structuring accountability and responsibility), people (managing culture and personnel), and data (collecting, transmitting and using information). In each of our three cases, we show how specific steps taken along one of these dimensions can help overcome important obstacles that commonly arise and, in so doing, enable successful horizontal collaboration.
Education: Gains and Gaps in Attainment and Earnings
(Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation, 2018-12) Parkin, Andrew
Almost three in ten young Ontarians – and one in three young men in Ontario – are entering an increasingly demanding labour market without any postsecondary training or credential. This is one of the main findings from a new Mowat analysis of data from the 2016 census. This analysis also shows that Indigenous peoples and certain visible minority groups in Ontario have important and worrisome educational attainment gaps when compared with the Ontario average. In the case of First Nations peoples in particular, these gaps unfortunately have not been narrowing over time. We also find that only three out of five university graduates in the province have a degree from an Ontario institution, pointing to the importance of migration in developing the province’s human capital. At the same time, immigrants with international degrees lag behind immigrants with Canadian degrees in terms of employment income. These findings underline a number of policy priorities. It is important to continue to focus on measures to encourage young Ontarians – especially Indigenous youth and youth from Southeast Asian, Black and Latin American communities – to access and succeed in postsecondary education, particularly in university. At the same time, Ontario must also continue to focus on recruiting skilled workers from outside its borders and on further leveraging its education system for this purpose.
Evidence that Works: Building the Canadian Evidence Infrastructure for Social Policy
(Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation, 2018-11) White, Anne
Canadian governments and their service-provider partners are tackling increasingly complex social problems. Effective solutions will depend on how well they can identify what initiatives are and are not working, and how well the most promising ones can be adapted and scaled up. Initiatives to enable data-driven decision-making have been growing in a variety of policy areas, with increasing funding from both governments and the social sector. But this growth is still not keeping up with demand for social and community services or with the increasing complexity of social challenges. As a result, those leading policy development and implementation too often still do not know enough about what works to improve outcomes, where to find evidence on what works that makes sense for their specific needs, and how to use the evidence that does exist to move forward. In response, we recommend investing in supports for building evidence across social policy. This includes establishing a clearinghouse of successful initiatives and organizations, providing technical supports to decision-makers, and redesigning services to be more people-centered. We also recommend ensuring collaboration across all three levels of government while encouraging local leadership of multi-jurisdictional initiatives. Systematically identifying and collating what we already know in Canada about what works in social policy, understanding more granularly what evidence means for decision-makers, choosing areas of social policy to prioritize next for evidence-building initiatives, and identifying local partners to lead the way, are useful starting points on this path.
Portraits 2017: Economic Security and the Social Safety Net
(Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation, 2018-10) Thirgood, Jordann; Parkin, Andrew
A decade after the financial crisis of 2008, many Ontarians remain somewhat uncertain about the future, expressing concerns about job security and opportunities for economic mobility, and mixed views about their social safety net. This is the main finding from a new Mowat report analyzing our Portraits 2017 survey data. Drawing on polling conducted in November 2017, the report finds, for example, that roughly three in five Ontarians are worried about themselves or an immediate family member getting and keeping a stable, full-time job. A similar proportion believes both the quality of life and standard of living for young Canadians will be worse than their parents’ generation. Moreover, while many Ontarians remain confident in being covered by a public pension or Employment Insurance, confidence is lower when it comes to support for child care, drug costs or postsecondary education. And expectations of receiving support are not always higher among those to whom these means-tested benefits are targeted. Finally, the report finds that, as in other Western democracies, many Ontarians are generally feeling wary of government as an institution. This, we conclude, is a potential challenge to governments seeking to advance policy initiatives designed to help citizens face the future with optimism and confidence.
Innovation in Evidence: Conference Background Paper
(Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation, 2018-10) Lalande, Lisa
The landscape for evidence-informed policymaking is changing rapidly. While important social issues are becoming more complex and entrenched, there exist challenges which impede the generation and adoption of evidence to inform impactful social policy in Canada. The Innovation in Evidence Conference is a response to these challenges, and an opportunity for Canadian and international policymakers and practitioners to discuss emerging approaches and opportunities for collaboration. The conference has three primary objectives: Identify opportunities to strengthen Canada’s evidence ecosystem. Directly inform efforts currently underway in Saskatchewan and Alberta to improve the use of evidence in policymaking and program delivery. Explore the potential for international collaboration on social policy issues. This paper serves as a context-setting piece for the Innovation in Evidence Conference, situating the event in relation to the current state of evidence-informed policymaking in Canada and innovative Canadian and international approaches to creating and using evidence.

Browse

Recent Submissions