SGI 2015 | Canada | Key Challenges

Key Challenges

Recent Governments Experts

SGI experts on Canada

Michael Howlett

Michael Howlett s Burnaby Mountain Professor and Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in the Department of Political Science at Simon Fraser University. He specializes in public policy analysis, political economy, and resource and environmental policy. His articles have been published in many professional journals in Canada, the United States, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Australia and New Zealand. Dr. Howlett currently edits the Annual Review of Policy Design, Policy Sciences, Policy Design and Practice, Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis and Policy & Society, as well as the University of Toronto Press Series in Comparative Political Economy and Public Policy, the Policy Press International Library of Policy Analysis, Cambridge Studies in Comparative Public Policy and Cambridge Elements of Public Policy. He is the founder of Research Committee 30 (Comparative Public Policy) of the International Political Science Association and sits on the Executive Committee of the International Public Policy Association.
His most recent book is Designing Public Policies: Principles and Instruments (New York: Routledge, 2024).

André Lecours

André Lecours is Full Professor in the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa. His main research interests are Canadian politics, European politics, nationalism (with a focus on Quebec, Scotland, Flanders, Catalonia and the Basque country) and federalism. He is the editor of New Institutionalism. Theory and Analysis published by the University of Toronto Press in 2005, the author of Basque Nationalism and the Spanish State (University of Nevada Press, 2007), and the co-author (with Daniel Béland) of Nationalism and Social Policy. The Politics of Territorial Solidarity (Oxford University Press, 2008).

Shirley Anne Scharf

Shirley Anne Scharf is a Digital Policy Hub Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Waterloo, Canada and a Visiting Researcher with the CN-Paul M. Tellier Chair on Business and Public Policy, University of Ottawa. Shirley Anne has a Ph.D. in Public Administration from the University of Ottawa. Her research interests include industrial policy, governance and technological change and comparative political economy. Her Ph.D. dissertation focused on Canadian innovation policy and she is currently researching innovation policy in the Republic of Korea, Sweden and Canada. She has also served in government, managing science and technological organizations and as a policy analyst.

Daniel Béland (Coordinator)

Daniel Béland is Director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada and James McGill Professor in the Department of Political Science at McGill University. He has held visiting academic positions at Harvard University, the University of Bremen, the University of Nagoya, the University of Southern Denmark, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Professor Béland currently serves as Executive Editor of the Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis and President of the Research Committee 19 (Poverty, Social Welfare and Social Policy) of the International Sociological Association. A student of social and fiscal policy, he has published more than 20 books and 160 peer-reviewed journal articles.

Greatest challenges involve climate action, healthcare access, housing affordability, and information transparency

Based on the analysis in the report, some of the greatest challenges for Canadian governments involve climate action, healthcare access, housing affordability, and information transparency. Targeted efforts and policies in these key areas could help Canadian governments make progress on some of the most pressing governance and policy challenges identified in the analysis. Yet some of the limitations are built into the foundations of Canadian governments and societies and are highly resistant to change.

Continued fossil fuel production, provincial resistance marring climate action

On climate action, for example, provincial resistance and continued fossil fuel production and exports hinder emission reduction efforts promoted by the federal government. Greater cooperation, binding reduction targets, phasing out subsidies, and transition support for affected regions could help align climate policies across jurisdictions, but achieving this is impossible without provincial agreement, which is not forthcoming.

Healthcare access is hindered by wait times, funding limitations

In healthcare, access remains a significant issue. Long wait times and uneven geographical access plague the systems, which could be improved through increased funding, better infrastructure, more healthcare workers, and delivery innovations. However, healthcare is primarily a provincial responsibility, and funding is not forthcoming from this level. Efforts to add more private sector clinics and procedures to the system face provincial and federal limitations on qualifications for health insurance payments, as well as measures specifically designed to discourage the emergence of a “two-tiered” medical system, where one tier serves the well-off and the other serves everyone else.

Housing affordability is a pressing issue that has garnered significant attention recently due to a large influx of immigrants, the highest percentage intake since before World War I. Rapidly rising home prices have led to high household debt levels and have priced many out of the market, particularly young people and many of the immigrants moving to the country. Increasing supply through densification, social and affordable housing, speculation taxes, and assistance programs could improve accessibility. However, this relies on private sector investment and enthusiasm, as well as the removal of numerous barriers on multi-unit and other types of dwellings imposed by local governments. Efforts to create a larger market for rental housing as a quick fix to current problems also face societal resistance. Canadians, for many generations, have valued home ownership and view extended periods of renting as counterproductive to that goal.

Reconciliation with Indigenous peoples is also an ongoing challenge. This is partly because they fall behind the general population in various socioeconomic indicators, and their quest for cultural recognition and political autonomy is increasingly prominent in contemporary Canadian society.

In terms of improving internal governmental operations and enhancing democratic practices, information transparency at all levels of Canadian governments remains poor. Broader information disclosure, more funding for access to information officials, stronger penalties for delays, and fewer exemptions would help. However, these improvements counter a system where the default for government data is secrecy, and privacy considerations are often used to offset any tendencies toward more public information disclosure.

Sustained leadership, funding commitments, stakeholder collaboration, and system-level reforms are necessary to address these public policy issues, but there should be no illusion that this will be simple or speedy.