Cracking Canada’s Policy Silos: Michael J. Trebilcock

In an opinion (Intelligence Memos) for The C.D. Howe Institute, an independent not-for-profit research institute, University Professor Emeritus Michael J. Trebilcock addresses Canadians concerned about public policy:

"Many of Canada’s most pressing policy challenges entail significant interaction effects between policy domains, which for a federation like Canada poses major coordination hurdles.

These arise both vertically between levels of government and horizontally within levels of government that are often organized on a specialized basis with different ministries for different issues. These hurdles are most acute with respect to at least six polycentric issues that engage many policy domains.

And while various mechanisms already exist, they are typically neither publicly transparent enough nor broadly participatory enough to effectively face Canada’s current challenges. That’s why my colleague Edward Iacobucci and I have recently argued for a new approach.

First, however, here are six pressing areas of public policy (in no particular order), where Canada’s performance has deteriorated in recent years."

Read the full Intelligence Memo at The C.D. Howe Institute website