Reports

The Public Policy Forum has produced hundreds of reports since our inception in 1987. This site features reports from 2012 and after, as well as our most popular and referenced publications from earlier years. If there is a report you cannot find, please contact us.
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Debating the Right Balance(s) for Privacy Law in Canada

Released: Monday January 17, 2022

In fall 2021, the Public Policy Forum convened a group of academics, lawyers, representatives from the private sector and members of civil society to revive discussions around modernizing privacy law in Canada under the Chatham House rule.
Learn moreabout Debating the Right Balance(s) for Privacy Law in Canada
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New North Star III

The Case for a Canada Advanced Research Projects Agency

Released: Wednesday December 22, 2021

Canada’s prosperity has relied too heavily on the here and now of deficit spending, booming real estate and debt-financed household consumption. We must instead redirect investment to the wealth and well-being of the future, particularly our ability to invent and innovate, generate world-leading technologies and firms and ultimately capture global markets. The invention and adoption of new products, services and processes must be the foundation of rising productivity and long-term prosperity.
Learn moreabout New North Star III
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Disaster Risk, Climate Change and National Security Governance in Canada

Released: Thursday December 2, 2021

Key takeaways As a result of Canada’s northern latitude, significant landmass and extensive coastline, the country is particularly vulnerable to climate impacts. Within the last decade, Canada has witnessed large-scale population displacements and billions of dollars in insurance and public treasury losses. While emissions mitigation measures may contain long-term impacts,...
Learn moreabout Disaster Risk, Climate Change and National Security Governance in Canada
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Different Paths of Pandemic Protection: A comparative case study on vaccine rollouts in Nova Scotia, Quebec and Ontario

Released: Thursday October 28, 2021

Getting Canadians immunized against COVID-19 has been a complicated process in a country that has neither the capabilities to produce its own vaccine nor a centralized healthcare system to administer it.
Learn moreabout Different Paths of Pandemic Protection: A comparative case study on vaccine rollouts in Nova Scotia, Quebec and Ontario
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CLIMATETIVENESS: What it Takes for Canada to Thrive in a Net Zero Exporting World

Released: Wednesday October 27, 2021

In addition to being the year-and-a-half when a pandemic shook the world, 2020-21 will be remembered for a renewed determination to address long-neglected areas of policy. The COVID-19 crisis not only threw brand new challenges on the public agenda, but also reminded us of the need to get moving on...
Learn moreabout CLIMATETIVENESS: What it Takes for Canada to Thrive in a Net Zero Exporting World
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Sequencing the Crisis: How genomics morphed from a COVID-19 research tool to a critical part of the pandemic response

Released: Monday October 25, 2021

As COVID-19 surged through Canada’s population, the country’s genomics community came together in an ambitious national consortium to sequence the genomes of the virus and Canadians exposed or affected. Its challenging work didn’t stop there. Mary Gooderham recounts how it was done.
Read the PPF case study
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Future Proof: Connecting Post-Pandemic Canada

Released: Monday October 4, 2021

What public policy measures are needed to ensure that Canada’s digital connectivity infrastructure fully supports an inclusive, competitive post-pandemic economy?
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Beyond the Digital Status Quo

Experiences and Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic

Authors: Richard McDonald, Michael Power, Aron Feuer, and Julian Botham
Released: Tuesday September 28, 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a crisis that mobilized organizations and economies – one that tested both the operational assumptions and preparedness of every public sector organization in Canada. Given the adage, “never let a good crisis go to waste”, this paper takes the opportunity to consider digital transformation in the time of pandemic and to offer recommendations to organizations as they consider how best to approach digital transformation, security, and workers, post-pandemic.
Learn moreabout Beyond the Digital Status Quo