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Canadian Commission on Democratic Expression: Harms Reduction

The health of our democracy ultimately depends on citizens having the capacity, willingness and opportunity to participate in our public life. Following nine months of study and deliberations, the Canadian Commission on Democratic Expression has settled on a six-part, made-in-Canada plan to address hate speech and other online harms, while balancing freedom of speech.

Learn moreabout Harms Reduction: A Six-Step Program to Protect Democratic Expression Online
Policy Speaking

Ep.45: Canadian Rail Trilogy – Pandemic Edition

The pandemic presents an opportunity to breathe new life into the story of rail in Canada. Former Transport Minister Lisa Raitt and Yves Desjardins Siciliano, CEO at Siemens Mobility Canada and former VIA Rail CEO join Policy Speaking to talk the ghost of divestment past, Canada's present inter-city train network, why Quebec's system seems different, and how the current commuter crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic could be leveraged to innovate metro systems and major city links.

Hear about the fate of rail
Publication

Report 3: Do Vaccine Brand Preferences Exist?

Canada has approved four COVID-19 vaccines for use and secured access to more vaccine doses per person than any other country. With such a wide array of vaccines likely to be made available to them, Canadians’ preferences on which vaccine they receive could have a big impact on the vaccination campaign. With data from the Media Ecosystem Observatory, Dr. Peter Loewen breaks down what Canadians consider most important in a vaccine, and which vaccines they prefer.

Learn about Canadians' vaccine choices
Policy Speaking

Ep.44: More Than an Economic Recovery

Vaccines are rolling out and many Canadians are hoping for an economic upswing in the summer and fall. Is that what we should expect? David Dodge, former Governor of the Bank of Canada, joins us to talk about the economic factors he's following and the impact of the economic stimulus so far in Canada versus the U.S. and Europe. He also puts on his healthcare hat, as a former deputy health minister, to talk about outlooks for provinces like Ontario and Quebec relative to their healthcare spending - and the impact healthcare and social spending can have on our economies.

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Publication

Searching for Innovation? Look North!

A year into the pandemic and Canada looks for paths forward to build back better. After the year of invaluable lessons learned, what do we know? What do we want to strengthen? What are we willing to change? What are the assets and building blocks for a stronger future?

Read about innovation in action now.
Policy Speaking

Ep.43: Keep Calm and Supply Vaccines

Canada has four COVID-19 vaccines ready for distribution in half (if not 1/3) the time many predicted. Yet none are homegrown. Dr. Alan Bernstein, CEO of the global research organization CIFAR, and Dr. Vivek Goel, soon-to-be President of the University of Waterloo and a public health physician on the federal government’s COVID-19 Immunity Task Force, join Policy Speaking to talk about the logistics of delivering the large number of vaccines landing on Canadian shores, why we're importing them, and how to tackle the looming 3rd wave of COVID-19 variants.

Listen in to this COVID-19 update
Event

Rebuilding the Local Economy: Inside the Mi’kmaq-Clearwater Deal

Watch the full conversation on PPF's YouTube channel. One of the first public conversations about the purchase of Clearwater Seafoods Inc. by a coalition of Mi’kmaq First Nations. Joined by the architects of this deal, Chief Terry Paul and John Risley outline and unpack this historic landmark of Indigenous ownership in the Atlantic region, what it means for Reconciliation, innovation and the economic opportunity it spurs.

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Policy Speaking

Ep.42: Our Forced Telework Experiment

When the pandemic ends, do we return to the office of 2019? Over half of surveyed workers would like to continue working from home, even just a bit. Managers, employees, commuters and families have lived new options and Tania Saba, professor and expert on workforce and digital transformation, explores how back-to-office may – or may not – play out. Regardless, says Murtaza Haider, Research Director of the Urban Analytics Institute, many Canadians have left urban centres bringing their work needs – whether infrastructure or work habits – with them.

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Publication

Report 2: Support for a Canadian “Vaccine Passport”

"Support for a Canadian 'Vaccine Passport'" is the second piece in a six-part series focused on attitudes about COVID-19, vaccine hesitancy, public trust and support for government, and how this is all changing over time. The project is authored by Dr. Peter Loewen and is based on data collected by the Media Ecosystem Observatory (MEO).

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Policy Speaking

Ep.41: She-cession – Unprecedented and Uneven

Women are the heroes of the COVID-19 pandemic. From nurses to doctors, school teachers to orderlies, women represent 50% (or much more) of many front-line professions. Yet employment outcomes for women, particularly young women and racialized women, are the most troubling. Lynn Barr-Telford, Assistant Chief Statistician at Statistics Canada, joins Policy Speaking to share these numbers and Anjum Sultana, National Director of Public Policy & Strategic Communications at YWCA Canada, shares how the pandemic has transformed hidden trends in the labour market and offers solutions from the YWCA's 8-point feminist economic recovery plan.

Learn about the she-cession
Academy

Look back at the 2020/21 Action Canada Fellowship

Action Canada Fellows released their three timely reports on place-based approaches to future of work post-pandemic in March 2021.

Read their work
Policy Speaking

Ep.40: Realities for Black Canadians in COVID-times

Nadine Spencer, President of the Black Business and Professional Association and Mohamed Elmi, Director of Research at the Diversity Institute discuss walking the talk when it comes to addressing systemic racism. Nadine and Mohamed share the challenges black business people have long faced, and society has only recently begun to acknowledge. From financing in the COVID-19 pandemic, to the fact that only 13 black individuals were identified from over 900 corporate boards positions in major cities in Canada, this wide reaching conversation really puts the challenges and hopes for a better Canada in perspective.

Learn about systemic racism
Publication

Fault Lines and Common Ground: Understanding the State of the Canada's Urban-Rural Divide

What divides urban and rural voters? What unites them? In this second report on the Urban-Rural divide in Canada, Sean Speer and his team take a closer look at the Canadian Election Study and find that urban and rural Canadians have divergent opinions on many key issues, but they also agree to a large extent on many others. As populism grows across the western world, policymakers in Canada need to understand the implications.

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Policy Speaking

Ep.39: Are Rural Areas Being Left Behind?

U.S. President Joe Biden’s recent inauguration speech spoke of the “uncivil war” that polarizes American society across different fault lines including the urban-rural divide. But Canadians shouldn’t assume that these are merely American problems. Sean Speer and Peter Loewen share their recent research, and sketch a blueprint for how we can go about building empathy and ultimately precluding the kind of polarization that we've witnessed elsewhere, with renewed economic activity in some of these places on the periphery.

Learn about the urban-rural divide
Article

The Time is Now.

This paper reflects a strong consensus within the Energy Future Forum that any achievable pathway to national climate and economic objectives must include a significant contribution from carbon capture technologies and from utilization and storage. In any post-COVID, “green stimulus” planning, support for CCUS expansion is even more pivotal than before.

Read more now
Policy Speaking

Ep.38: A Growth Plan for Canadian Industry

From clean energy, to digital tech Canada is a world leader in entrepreneurship. Yet as Monique Leroux, Chair of the Industry Strategy Council of Canada, and Karimah Es Sabar and Karen Hamberg, members of the Council point out – many of those companies start out but find no home here. These industry leaders share what they've heard from business leaders across Canada, in reports like New North Star I & II, and share findings from the Council's December report on how Canada can make strategic changes to stay on the path of prosperity.

Learn about Canadian industry
Publication

Perceptions and Polarization: Measuring the Perception Gap between Urban and Rural Canadians

Political polarization is growing across the globe. In this first report on the urban-rural divide in Canada, Sean Speer teams up with Peter Loewen and the University of Toronto’s Policy, Elections and Representation Lab (PEARL) to explore the theory that a “perception gap” exists between those who live in cities, the suburbs and rural communities. How do Canadians' distorted beliefs of one another’s circumstances fuel polarization?

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Policy Speaking

Ep.37: Putting Indigenous in ESG

Billions of dollars will flow into Indigenous nations to make major impacts on Canadian infrastructure and industry, but will those impacts benefit those Indigenous communities? Globally, 40 trillion investor dollars go through an environment, social and governance (ESG) risk assessment process. Yet Mark Podlasly, economic director at The First Nation's Major Project Coalition says no ESG standards include Indigenous people as anything more than a checkbox, instead of invested partners. He says that needs to change.

Learn more about Indigenous partnership
Publication

A New North Star II Revisited

Six months after the release of New North Star II, the case for a mission-driven economic strategy is even more relevant. The pandemic has highlighted the need for a new industrial strategy to cultivate domestic innovations and technologies in Canada's national interests and authors Robert Asselin and Sean Speer revisit their analysis and recommendations and find a compelling model in the US’s DARPA model.

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Project

Skills for the Post-Pandemic World

The Future of Work is here to stay. This new PPF project explores the policy implications for skills, training, and employment for workers and learners across Canada.

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