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AbstractGovernments are an important source of funding for the nonprofit and voluntary sector. Yet, the use of funding instruments is conditioned by the political and institutional context. This paper proposes three financing models – charity, welfare state and citizenship – which capture the link between the choice of public financing and the broader institutional context. The financing models are then used to examine the evolution of funding patterns in Canada. We argue that the evolution of financing models in Canada has gradually constrained instrument choice and more importantly, a market-oriented application of funding instruments has dominated the financing debates at the expense of a broader focus on preconditions of applying the instruments effectively. As a result, funding instruments in Canada are poorly suited for fostering innovation and investing in capacity development in the voluntary sector.

The severe acute respiratory syndrome–coronavirus-2 pandemic has spread rapidly and has a growing impact on individuals, communities, and healthcare systems worldwide. At the core of any pandemic response is the ability of authorities and other stakeholders to react appropriately by promoting hygiene and social distancing behaviors. Successfully reaching this goal requires both individual and collective efforts to drastically modify daily routines and activities. There is a need to clarify how knowledge and awareness of disease influence risk perception, and subsequent behavior in the context of pandemics and global outbreaks. We conducted a scoping review of 149 studies spanning different regions and populations to examine the relationships between knowledge, risk perceptions, and behavior change. We analyzed studies on five major pandemics or outbreaks in the twenty-first century: severe acute respiratory syndrome, influenza A/H1N1, Middle East respiratory syndrome, Ebola virus disease, and coronavirus disease 2019.

Abstract In 2012, Weijer et al published “The Ottawa Statement on the ethical design and conduct of cluster randomized trials”. In 2015, we reflected on this statement and argued that three recommendations in this statement need to be further refined. Weijer and Taljaard have responded to our comments in this issue of the journal. They agree with one of the proposed revisions but not with two others. In this commentary, we argue that the main reason why there is disagreement about two of our refinements is that we have different views on the moral and legal status of the health care workers as “research participants” in cluster randomized trials (CRTs). In this commentary, we clarify misunderstandings about our view expressed in 2015 and elaborate on the positions of health care workers in CRTs. We argue that there is sufficient reason to doubt whether the rights and interests of health care workers (HCWs) should be protected by means of ethics guidance documents and laws on human subjects research. Their interests are protected in the first place by professional codes of conduct which ensure that they cannot provide substandard care. Furthermore, protection of HCWs by ethics guidance on human subjects research will create an enormous burden for principle investigators and research ethics committees. Further debate is essential to determine how the interests of HCWs in CRTs can be protected best.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a progressive metabolic disorder that affects Aboriginal people disproportionately around the world. Evidence shows that diabetes treatment strategies can effectively reduce complications related to the disease; in contrast many Aboriginal people develop these rapidly and at a young age. We conducted qualitative research on the barriers to evidence-based self-management behaviours and education from the perspectives of Aboriginal people living with type 2 diabetes and their health care providers on Manitoulin Island in Ontario, Canada. Applying the concept of structural violence, we analyzed the social and political arrangements that can put Aboriginal people with diabetes “in harm’s way” by interfering with diabetes management. Lastly, we provide recommendations for structural interventions.

Peculiar patterns have emerged in municipal politics in Canada. Unlike at federal and provincial levels of government, party politics is weak or absent in cities. But looking at the entire history of municipal elections of three Western Canadian cities — Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver — also finds that, again unlike politicians at higher levels, municipal representatives are increasingly more likely to win repeated re-elections, facing a much lower threat from any competitive challenge. In addition, the careers of municipal politicians are growing steadily longer, leading to relatively stable, almost static, city governments that tend to see change most commonly when councillors choose to step down, rather than being forced out. Such patterns, of course, run counter to the general presumption in lively democracies, including this one, that the responsiveness of government leaders (that is, following the wishes of their constituents) and their accountability for the actions they take are best served by frequent turnovers in government: The need to throw politicians out every now and again to let new ones try and do things better. Whether the remarkable levels of stability and incumbency on city councils actually do serve the best interests of voters is unclear. More clear is that the lack of a party system at the city level seems to have contributed to this peculiar dynamic, and that city politicians have an interest in keeping it that way. While party affiliations provide a candidate some benefits in the form of campaign co-ordination, they also provide voters with increased clarity about what each candidate stands for policy-wise. That might be helpful to voters, but city politicians might find it more useful to blur their positions, leaving voters uncertain of exactly how to define a specific councillor’s stand, overall. The amount of information required to root through a councillor’s voting record, and the relatively light media coverage of daily council business, leaves most voters inclined to rely on something other than political signals when they decide who to support. Inevitably, a candidate’s personal character and length of experience take on a larger priority in the voting decision. So, the longer a councillor serves, the longer he or she might be likely to keep serving. The natural outcome of this phenomenon is that city councils are less likely to become polarized as councillors have an incentive to seek consensus by limiting obvious policy distinctions between themselves and their fellow representatives, contributing to a dynamic where city council works more like a corporate body and less like a partisan legislature. As long as citizens remain largely unperturbed by the overall actions of their city council, they might judge the risk of replacing them at election time as unnecessarily high compared to sticking with the status quo. This behaviour challenges much of the prevailing theory about how political processes improve political responsiveness and accountability. This is occurring at a time when cities are emerging as important and increasingly powerful nodes in the modern global economy. That the very nature of how they are governed is diverging so markedly from the norm that Canadians have come to expect from other levels of government is not something to be considered lightly. The School of Public Policy Publications, Vol 10 (2017)

Abstract This article examines the impacts of problem definition, defined as a social mechanism, in bringing about gradual institutional change. Focusing on a similar process of gradual institutional change in Canada and Australia, it shows that problem definition is one pathway by which actors’ interests and behaviors are redefined inside an institutional regime. By tracing the process of federalization of Canada and Australia’s immigration regime since the 1990, it demonstrates that problem definition contributed to the rise of subnational governments as legitimate actors in the management of immigration. In these two countries, the specificities of the operation of this mechanism, including the actors mobilized for change, and the content of the policy problem being put forward generated different processes of federalization that nonetheless resulted in inclusive immigration federalism. In dialogue with historical institutionalism, this points to the potential of the mechanismic approach for theory building regarding the consequences of the dynamics of problem definition.

The increased Inuit population in Canadian Metropolitan Areas (CMA) has recently gained attention among the scientific community as well as within Inuit organizations. However, existing literature has overlooked the distinct experience of Inuit women and, more significantly, the importance of care responsibilities in understanding women’s mobility. This study examines the relocation experiences of 46 Inuit women across five CMAs, and the role care sites play in initiating women’s relocation to cities. Results show the key role caregiving responsibilities play in Inuit women’s decisions to move to southern urban areas, as dysfunctional care spaces in the North push them away from their communities, and the potential for safer care sites in the South act as a pulling factor.

The federal budget contains some sensible changes to the SR&ED investment tax credit, but the decision to reduce support for large firms to provide additional support for small firms is a step in the wrong direction. The Jenkins Panel* expressed concern about excessive subsidization of small and medium-sized firms and recommended cutting back on the enhanced SR&ED credit in order to finance more targeted support for these firms. Following that advice would have improved the social return on support for R&D; in contrast, the budget measures marginally reduce the benefits to society from subsidizing R&D. The budget also announced $400 million in additional funding for risk capital. Returns in the venture capital industry are very low and the additional funding is unlikely to be successfully deployed until returns improve. There is abundant evidence that the tax credit for investment in Labour-Sponsored Venture Capital Corporations is crowding out private investment and contributing to low rates of return; eliminating the credit is therefore an essential first step in restoring the financial health of the venture capital industry. The School of Public Policy Publications, Vol 5 (2012)

Advances in stem cell science and tissue engineering are being turned into applications and products through a novel medical paradigm known as regenerative medicine. This paper begins by examining the vulnerabilities and risks encountered by the regenerative medicine industry during a pivotal moment in its scientific infancy: the 2000s. Under the auspices of New Labour, British medical scientists and life science innovation firms associated with regenerative medicine, received demonstrative rhetorical pledges of support, aligned with the publication of a number of government initiated reports presaged by Bioscience 2015: Improving National Health, Increasing National Wealth. The Department of Health and the Department of Trade and Industry (and its successors) held industry consultations to determine the best means by which innovative bioscience cultures might be promoted and sustained in Britain. Bioscience 2015 encapsulates the first chapter of this sustainability narrative. By 2009, the tone of this st...