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The procurement and provision of expert-driven, evidence-informed, and independent science advice is integral to timely decision-making during public health emergencies. The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has underscored the need for sound evidence in public health policy and exposed the challenges facing government science advisory mechanisms. This paper is a jurisdictional case study describing (i) the federal science advice bodies and mechanisms for public health in Canada (i.e., the federal science advice "ecosystem"); and (ii) how these bodies and mechanisms have mobilized and evolved to procure expertise and evidence to inform decisions during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. We reviewed publicly accessible Government of Canada documents, technical reports, and peer-reviewed articles available up to December 2021. Canada's federal landscape of science advisory bodies for public health within the Health Portfolio was largely shaped by Canada's experiences with the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome and 2009 H1N1 outbreaks. In parallel, Canada has a designated science advisory apparatus that has seen frequent reforms since the early 2000s, with the current Office of the Chief Science Advisor created within the Science Portfolio in 2018. The COVID-19 pandemic has further complicated Canada's science advice ecosystem, with involvement from departments, expert advisory groups, and partnerships within both the federal Health and Science Portfolios. Although the engagement of federal departments outside the health sector is promising, the COVID-19 experience in Canada supports the need to institutionalize science advisory bodies for public health to improve pandemic preparedness and ensure rapid mobilization of well-coordinated and independent advice in future emergencies. This review also identified pressing areas for further inquiry to strengthen science advice for public health in Canada, including to assess the independence of science advisory actors and the interaction between federal and subnational authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will focus on the ambitious plan for regulation embodied in the Dominion Fisheries Act of 1868, a law passed by the Canadian federal parliament in its very first year of existence. The 1868 law was intended to bring the nation's fisheries firmly under the control of officials employed by the new federal government. The paper argues that 1868 law, which was designed to address what would today be called Tragedy of the Commons problems, was a product of the hubris identified by Hayek as "the fatal conceit." The centralized and bureaucratic approach to governing fisheries represented by the 1868 Fisheries Act did not work well because the knowledge that would have been required for successful management of fisheries was highly dispersed. Drawing on Hayek and the Bloomington School, this paper argues that the experience of Canada's fisheries sector in the generation after 1868 illustrates the problems with centralized management Common-Pool Resources. In the 1890s, the centralized approach represented by the Fisheries Act of 1868 was replaced by a more flexible and decentralized system Hayek's theory of knowledge would suggest the reversal of centralization over environmental policy in the 1890s was a positive development that helped Canadians to reconcile the goals of economic development and the protection of the environment. The Hayekian paradigm suggests that control over environmental policy should be devolved downwards to the levels of government closest to resource users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically investigates the underlying determinants of the respective roles of different levels of government in expenditure functions, guided by recent theoretical developments on the political economy of partial expenditure decentralization. We adopt a theoretical framework in which the degree of expenditure decentralization is endogenous and depends, in equilibrium, on the relative political conditions prevailing at each level of government. Consistent with the model's predictions, empirical results from a panel of Canadian provinces show that the share of total expenditure in a province assumed by the provincial government increases with the electoral strength of the provincial government and decreases with the electoral strength of the federal government, in addition to being affected significantly by the partisan affiliation of both levels of government. A series of alternative empirical specifications, including an IV regression exploiting campaign spending data, are presented to assess the robustness of these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role of the Canadian federal government in two foreign policy areas: overseas development assistance and international cultural relations by providing a brief history of the federal government’s engagement in both policy areas and highlighting the contributions and challenges of Canadian foreign policy to the internationalization of Canadian higher education. More broadly, the paper explores the unique characteristics of the Canadian federal government’s role in higher education policy making, and in particular, its relations with academics and the university community. Ironically in a world increasingly characterized by greater international education flows, in Canada, there has been a narrowing of vision, a focus on more short rather than long term objectives and a limited engagement of dialogue between academics and the government to promote both development assistance and international education as Canada’s soft power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

“Macroappraisal, the next frontier” describes a records disposition pilot project which was based on a refinement of the current macroappraisal methodology in use at Library and Archives Canada. Still very much a work in progress, the refined approach builds upon macroappraisal theory and methodology, and this paper presents its application to Fisheries and Oceans Canada, a major federal government department in the Government of Canada. The project focused on providing the institution with total records disposition coverage based on a single archival appraisal and two Records Disposition Authorities. This paper demonstrates the feasibility of appraising records at the mandate level instead of at the function or program level. It also outlines and points to the benefits and advantages of appraising large government institutions in their totality rather than in smaller, discrete sectors, branches, or divisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phrase 'peace, order and good government,' common to the definition of federal powers in both the Australian and the Canadian constitutions, has defined the relationship of the Crown and the citizen for more than five centuries. The archival record is fundamental to that relationship, providing its authoritative legal basis, documenting its evolution and continuing as a reminder of both our proudest achievements and our most dismal failures as a society. This paper reflects on the role of archives in recent Canadian human rights issues, highlighting both the strengths and the weaknesses of the record, the perception of archives as an agency of the state and the role of archives in helping society address highly contentious issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During their attempts at stabilization, the central authorities in a federal system often face the prospect of lack of co-operation by junior levels of government. In the context of a macroeconometric model of the Canadian economy, this paper presents a framework for assessing the importance of junior government behavior to the outcome of centrally directed stabilization policies. The results do not confirm the view that the success of these policies requires nonfederal government co-operation. Relatively extreme assumptions about discretionary nonco-operation by junior jurisdictions are needed to conclude stabilization by the central authorities would not work at all simply because of this lack of co-operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some policy scholars insist that any policy change is difficult to achieve, while others argue that large change occurs more frequently than we imagine. The work of Baumgartner and Jones reconciles these arguments, suggesting that the extent to which large public policy changes can take place depends on the ability of decision makers to conduct wide-ranging and varied information searches. The more open policy makers are to a diversity of information, the more likely it is that profound change will occur. Given human limitations in cognitive capacity, policy makers cannot simultaneously undertake multiple broad information searches. At any given time, however, such searches occur on a small number of policy topics, and produce significant changes on those topics, while the status quo prevails on the others. As important as this hypothesis is for policy studies, it has not been the object of significant empirical testing, especially outside the US Congress. This article fills this gap through a comprehensive analysis of Canadian federal government regulatory change from 1998 to 2019. We find that Baumgartner and Jones theory is largely corroborated in the Canadian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proponents of "cooperative federalism" claim that intergovernmental behaviour is endogenous to legal rules about legislative competences: a concurrency rule systematically induces intergovernmental cooperation, where an exclusivity rule systematically impedes it. Citing the imperative for greater cooperation, courts in classical, or dualist, federal systems have used legal doctrine to fashion zones of de facto legislative concurrency. We develop a formal model to explore the soundness of this reasoning. Our analysis complicates courts' simplistic expectation. Under our assumptions, cooperation may be supported in equilibrium, but only under quite restrictive conditions. We show how the impact (if any) of a de facto concurrency rule on government behaviour depends on the paramountcy rule, government policy preferences relative to the status quo, policy development costs, and the risk of costly political backlash. We pair our theoretical analysis with a study of Canadian federalism jurisprudence and its impact on Canadian securities regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Public Health is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Studies in Population is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary & Nonprofit Organizations is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article reports that on March 18, 2005, the World Health Organization launched the Global Commission on Social Determinants of Health. In recognition of the many determinants of health, the Federal Government has begun work on the development of Public Health Goals for Canada. A discussion paper, workbook and survey are available on the Public Health Goals website at www.healthycanadians.ca. The goals must facilitate reinvestment in public health and focus on populations so that widespread improvements will take place.

Examines the effectivity of public choice on the federal system of government in the Province of Quebec. Argument on the dimension of political process in federalist framework; Operation of two forces in federalist system; Explanation on the mixture of empirical record in the contribution of federalism.

The article reexamines the issue of decentralization in Canada. It focuses on the possibility of collusion among governments to circumvent the discipline of competitive federalism. It is argued that component governments in a federal constitution collude for the same purpose. The evidence indicates a positive correlation between collusion and total government size.