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Communications Director

The challenge of navigating our health and care systems

For older adults and their caregivers, navigating our fragmented health and care systems can quickly become an overwhelming task. Laura Funk (University of Manitoba) joined the podcast to discuss her new IRPP study, which looks at how policy-makers can lift this burden for Canadians. Listen now.

To Sell or Scale Up: Canada's Patent Strategy in a Knowledge Economy

Indigenous consent and land-use planning

What awaits Canada's 43rd Parliament?

Hausser l'âge d'admissibilité au RRQ?

Hausser l'âge d'admissibilité au RRQ?

Webinar

The Future of EI Within Canada's Social Safety Net: Access, Adequacy, and Work Incentives

November 18, 2020
1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.  (Eastern Time)

The pandemic has exposed major shortcomings in the main pillar of Canada''s social safety net: the Employment Insurance system. The current system - designed in the 1970s and updated in the 1990s - was showing its age prior to the pandemic, as many unemployed Canadians struggled to qualify for benefits or to find permanent work before their benefits ran out. Looking ahead to the post-pandemic recovery, how can Canada modernize its EI system to better suit the needs of working-age adults in the 21st century?

That''s up for discussion at the next IRPP webinar. Our panel will feature three of the countries' top experts on the matter, Tammy Schirle (Wilfrid Laurier University), St?phanie Lluis and Mikal Skuterud (both of the University of Waterloo), along with the IRPP''s Colin Busby acting as moderator.

The webinar is free, but registration is required.

With thousands of Canadians laid off from work due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it's hard to predict who will return to steady jobs and when. Yet, a new IRPP study by Statistics Canada analysts Ren? Morissette and Theresa Hanqing Qiu on long-term trends in permanent layoffs from 1978 to 2016 reveals that the Canadian labour market has been remarkably resilient, even through multiple economic downturns and a period marked by globalization and profound demographic, technological, and environmental changes. 

This study is published under the IRPP's new research program on The Future of Skills and Adult Learning, directed by Natalia Mishagina. The program will critically evaluate Canada's education and training programs for adult learners, and present proposals for a more effective and proactive adult learning ecosystem that fosters a more resilient workforce. 

Download the publication from the Institute''s website at irpp.org.

Webinar

The Future of EI Within Canada's Social Safety Net: Access, Adequacy, and Work Incentives

November 18, 2020
1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.  (Eastern Time)

The pandemic has exposed major shortcomings in the main pillar of Canada''s social safety net: the Employment Insurance system. The current system - designed in the 1970s and updated in the 1990s - was showing its age prior to the pandemic, as many unemployed Canadians struggled to qualify for benefits or to find permanent work before their benefits ran out. Looking ahead to the post-pandemic recovery, how can Canada modernize its EI system to better suit the needs of working-age adults in the 21st century?

That''s up for discussion at the next IRPP webinar. Our panel will feature three of the countries' top experts on the matter, Tammy Schirle (Wilfrid Laurier University), St?phanie Lluis and Mikal Skuterud (both of the University of Waterloo), along with the IRPP''s Colin Busby acting as moderator.

The webinar is free, but registration is required.

Over the past three years, the RCMP intercepted close to 60-thousand asylum seekers crossing into Canada irregularly. Many applied for refugee status. Although hotspots like Roxham Road in Quebec are now quiet because of COVID-19, governments should ready themselves for an uptick in entries and subsequent refugee claims. Now is the time to fundamentally change the way all levels of government have been responding to the issue, argue Mireille Paquet and Robert Schertzer in a new study published by the IRPP's Centre of Excellence on the Canadian Federation.

Download the publication from the Centre of Excellence on the Canadian Federation''s website at centre.irpp.org.

Webinar

The Future of EI Within Canada's Social Safety Net: Access, Adequacy, and Work Incentives

November 18, 2020
1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.  (Eastern Time)

The pandemic has exposed major shortcomings in the main pillar of Canada''s social safety net: the Employment Insurance system. The current system - designed in the 1970s and updated in the 1990s - was showing its age prior to the pandemic, as many unemployed Canadians struggled to qualify for benefits or to find permanent work before their benefits ran out. Looking ahead to the post-pandemic recovery, how can Canada modernize its EI system to better suit the needs of working-age adults in the 21st century?

That''s up for discussion at the next IRPP webinar. Our panel will feature three of the countries' top experts on the matter, Tammy Schirle (Wilfrid Laurier University), St?phanie Lluis and Mikal Skuterud (both of the University of Waterloo), along with the IRPP''s Colin Busby acting as moderator.

The webinar is free, but registration is required.

Dear friend,

Like you, we at the IRPP are adapting to the new realities of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Our first priority is the safety and good health of our staff, collaborators and audience. Our staff are working remotely, and we have postponed all in-person events until further notice. Nevertheless, we will continue to bring you thought-provoking analysis and research on the public policy challenges that are important to Canadians and their governments, virtually.

In the immediate term, we will focus our efforts on providing in-depth analysis on the policy impact of COVID-19. Policy Options magazine will be featuring a series on the implications of the outbreak for public health, intergovernmental collaboration, income support for workers and businesses, as well for a host of other policy areas. We will also be working on new research studies on skills and long-term trends in worker displacement, implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and social assistance support for singles in Canada. In due course, when the situation allows, we will resume our program of in-person events - including the national conference hosted by our new Centre of Excellence on the Canadian Federation. We will keep you informed of our activities through this newsletter and on social media.

No doubt, these are unprecedented times. But given our collective potential for policy ingenuity and strong action, I have every confidence Canada will rise to meet this challenge, as we have so many others before it. In the meantime, let's do everything we can to look out for each other and keep in touch.

Be safe and stay healthy.

Graham Fox
President and CEO

It has already been two and a half years since Ottawa announced the launch of the Innovation Superclusters Initiative, the centrepiece of its plan to reverse Canada's deteriorating innovation performance and accelerate Canadian firms' adoption of key transformative technologies. Is the plan working? How will we know? A new study from the Institute for Research on Public Policy shows that the potential benefits of the superclusters are huge but the key to their success will be to ensure they fully leverage their strengths as innovation ecosystems.

Download the publication from the Institute''s website at irpp.org.

Faced with a post-pandemic recession and new operating constraints, firms may decide to lessen their reliance on human labour by adopting new technologies. While a new wave of automation will not necessarily eliminate jobs, it may substantially transform them, forcing workers to adjust to a new reality. In this new IRPP study, Statistics Canada researchers Marc Frenette and Kristyn Frank, are breaking new ground by examining the demographic and employment characteristics of workers facing a high risk of job transformation due to automation. As they show, further automation is likely to put some workers more at risk than others.

Download the publication from the Institute''s website at irpp.org.

Webinar

The Future of EI Within Canada's Social Safety Net: Access, Adequacy, and Work Incentives

November 18, 2020
1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.  (Eastern Time)

The pandemic has exposed major shortcomings in the main pillar of Canada''s social safety net: the Employment Insurance system. The current system - designed in the 1970s and updated in the 1990s - was showing its age prior to the pandemic, as many unemployed Canadians struggled to qualify for benefits or to find permanent work before their benefits ran out. Looking ahead to the post-pandemic recovery, how can Canada modernize its EI system to better suit the needs of working-age adults in the 21st century?

That''s up for discussion at the next IRPP webinar. Our panel will feature three of the countries' top experts on the matter, Tammy Schirle (Wilfrid Laurier University), St?phanie Lluis and Mikal Skuterud (both of the University of Waterloo), along with the IRPP''s Colin Busby acting as moderator.

The webinar is free, but registration is required.

• Charles Breton, executive director of the new Centre of Excellence on the Canadian Federation, moderated a panel on Justin Trudeau and the politics of federalism, which you can catch on CPAC and the Policy Options Podcast.
• Our 2019 study on Canada''s patent strategy, by Nancy Gallini and Aidan Hollis, has been making the rounds in discussion of the fate of Quebec''s IP; see for example The Logic and La Presse.
• Research director Colin Busby weighed in on the economic effects of Canada''s aging population for a recent column by John Ibbitson in The Globe and Mail.
• IRPP board member Christopher Sands was appointed director of the Canada Institute at the Wilson Center; see the piece in The Logic.