Canadian Government Research Articles

Explaining variations in government health expenditure: evidence from Canada.

We examine factors affecting Canadian government health expenditure during 1968-2022. Our data provide evidence on expenditure decisions from 10 autonomous but similar healthcare systems operating under common standards and regulations. We show that expenditure-income elasticity as measured in the literature is sensitive to controls for the social determinants of health, rising from 0.23 to 0.35. We also extend the literature with novel results for total and for specific expenditure categories that have grown unevenly in recent decades finding higher elasticity for physician than for drug or hospital spending. Physician supply increases both hospital and physician expenditures. Mid-life population shares, often overlooked in the literature, explain changes in the rapidly growing drug expenditure category. Our relatively long time series allows us to illustrate the sensitivity of results to dynamic specifications, account for a structural break in 1996 and show that income elasticity has risen over time.

Deep learning model based prediction of vehicle CO2 emissions with eXplainable AI integration for sustainable environment

The transportation industry contributes significantly to climate change through carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, intensifying global warming and leading to more frequent and severe weather phenomena such as flooding, drought, heat waves, glacier melting, and rising sea levels. This study proposes a comprehensive approach for predicting CO2 emissions from vehicles using deep learning techniques enhanced by eXplainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) methods. Utilizing a dataset from the Canadian government’s official open data portal, we explored the impact of various vehicle attributes on CO2 emissions. Our analysis reveals that not only do high-performance engines emit more pollutants, but fuel consumption under both city and highway conditions also contributes significantly to higher emissions. We identified skewed distributions in the number of vehicles produced by different manufacturers and trends in fuel consumption across fuel types. This study used deep learning techniques to construct a CO2 emission prediction model, specifically a light multilayer perceptron (MLP) architecture called CarbonMLP. The proposed model was optimized by hyperparameter tuning and achieved excellent performance metrics, such as a high R-squared value of 0.9938 and a low Mean Squared Error (MSE) of 0.0002. This study employs XAI approaches, particularly SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP), to improve the model interpretation ability and provide information about the importance of features. The findings of this study show that the proposed methodology accurately predicts CO2 emissions from vehicles. Additionally, the analysis suggests areas for further research, such as increasing the dataset, integrating additional pollutants, improving interpretability, and investigating real-world applications. Overall, this study contributes to the design of effective strategies for reducing vehicle CO2 emissions and promoting environmental sustainability.

Estimating greenhouse gas emissions from the health sector in Canada: Mind the gap.

Healthcare is a surprisingly large contributor to climate change, responsible for a significant quantity of global Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. Global commitments to achieve "net zero" health systems, including by the federal government in Canada, suggest a growing need to understand and mobilize capacity for GHG emissions estimation across Canada's health sector. Our analysis highlights efforts by public sector healthcare organizations in Canada to estimate an increasingly broad scope of GHG emissions, building on longstanding efforts to report or reduce energy-related emissions from facilities. It also identifies why such efforts will not be sufficient. Developing capacity for routine system-wide greenhouse gas emissions estimation can help Canada's health systems to better understand their progress, including through international comparison. Yet emissions estimation is itself an investment, one that should not displace efforts to reduce the full scope of pollutants from the healthcare enterprise, and to build a truly sustainable health system.

The economics of Canadian immigration levels

AbstractIf immigration can benefit the Canadian economy, but must be limited to realize the benefit, what is the optimal level? The Canadian government is increasing immigration rates to levels not reached since the 1920s in the hope of addressing labour shortages and sluggish economic growth. We argue that economic immigration in the Canadian context should aim to raise GDP per capita in the population, including the newcomers, and examine the potential for increases in Canadian immigration rates to achieve this objective. Our analysis suggests that Canada is not well positioned to leverage heightened immigration to increase GDP per capita owing primarily to weak capital investment and quantity–quality tradeoffs in immigrant selection. We propose a policy rule for defining the optimal level of economic immigration.

Blackfoot legal traditions, treaty-making, and non-territorial forms of settler jurisdiction? Niitsitapi oral histories of Treaty 7

In this article, I discuss Blackfoot oral histories of Treaty 7, an agreement the Blackfoot confederacy entered into with the Canadian government and two other Indigenous nations in September of 1877. Drawing from critical legal and legal geographic studies, I deploy jurisdiction as an analytical concept, exploring the ways jurisdiction can give concrete form to Indigenous understandings of treaty as a means of ‘sharing’ the land with settlers. I argue that, for the Blackfoot Confederacy members that participated in the making of Treaty 7, this agreement did not represent the surrender of land or extinguishment of Blackfoot legal traditions, but the continuation of Blackfoot jurisdiction across the confederacy’s traditional territories. I also discuss Northwest Mounted Police (NWMP) Lieutenant-Colonel MacLeod’s positive relationship with Blackfoot confederacy members. I contend this relationship with MacLeod and the NWMP contributed to a Blackfoot understanding of Canadian law as governing relations between people. Thus, through entering into Treaty 7 with Crown representatives, the Blackfoot Confederacy representatives were recognizing Canadian jurisdiction as a non-territorial form of authority governing the conduct of settlers, a form of recognition that is far different from agreeing to surrender land title and accepting Crown sovereignty.

Identifying viable financing mechanisms for post-earthquake housing reconstruction in Canada: Case study of a M7 earthquake in British Columbia

Recent efforts by the Federal Government of Canada have devoted resources to mitigating disaster risk and identifying sustainable solutions for post-disaster housing reconstruction financing. In 2023, Canada committed funding to set up its National Flood Insurance Program. In parallel, the Department of Finance and Public Safety Canada plans industry engagement on solutions to earthquake insurance. In anticipation of the need to rethink post-earthquake housing reconstruction financing for single-family homes, the present study evaluates the feasibility of implementing three novel financing mechanisms in Canada, drawing inspiration from existing US and New Zealand programs. The proposed mechanisms include a grants program targeting low-to-moderate-income households, a low-interest loan program, and an affordable insurance program. Simulations of the impacts of M7 earthquake in the Strait of Georgia, British Columbia, are used to compare the post-earthquake uninsured losses in the status quo and if each new mechanism was in place before the event. Benefits are assessed through the reduction in uninsured losses, while opportunity losses measure the costs of each program. Results indicate that a loan program with an interest rate above 3.5% could offer benefits surpassing its opportunity cost, albeit with substantial initial expenses. In addition, introducing an affordable insurance program and a disaster fund shows promise but requires robust capitalization in its initial years. A combination of affordable insurance and low-interest loans could alleviate long-term debt for homeowners, particularly for earthquakes causing moderate losses.

Controlling Migration: How Martha of the North and Exile Reclaim Inuit Sovereignty

In the twenty-first century, there is increased awareness in Canada about the horrors of residential schools and the destructive actions of the government towards First Nations peoples. But this education has not extended to the histories of Arctic Indigenous peoples, whose experience of settler colonialism is different because of their geographical location. Until outside intervention, Inuit had been semi-nomadic, populating the North with small, mobile communities, as this way of life was best suited for hunting and traditional practices. Beginning in the 1950s, the Canadian government forced Inuit into centralized communities, pressuring them to leave their lands and thereby destroying a traditional way of life that had been in place for thousands of years. This article will explore the negative consequences of ‘domicide’, or the killing of one’s home, and the cultural devastation that followed. Years later, the relocation and its impacts were depicted in Inuit-made documentaries, such as Marquise Lepage’s Martha of the North in 2008, and Exile by Zacharias Kunuk in 2009. In this chapter, I will detail how Inuit-made film is helping Northerners reclaim Arctic sovereignty, documenting for future generations how their ancestors lived.

Study abroad pathways

In recent years, the growing demand for international education, coupled with economic challenges in Punjab, has driven a significant increase in students seeking higher education in Canada. This paper examines the roles of two critical stakeholders in this process: the Canadian government and overseas education agents. Canada’s policies on work permits and pathways to permanent residency make it a highly attractive destination, while education agents in Punjab play a pivotal role in facilitating student migration through financial incentives and targeted marketing strategies. Structured in two sections, this study explores Canadian policy impacts and the strategies employed by education agents to channel students abroad. Findings underscore the importance of these interconnected dynamics in shaping Canada as a premier destination for Punjabi students.

Canada-wide survey of school food programs.

Canada remains one of few Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries without a well-established nationally harmonized and funded school food program (SFP); however, the Canadian federal government recently announced the development and implementation of a national SFP that might supersede the uncoordinated patchwork of SFPs currently delivered across Canada. We designed and conducted novel survey research to systematically identify the characteristics of organization-led SFPs, building on previous research that focused on the characteristics of provincial and territorial government involvement in school food programming. An electronic survey was developed to include items deemed most relevant based on applicable literature and expert content validation, and distributed to organizations involved in the purchasing, planning, and/or preparation of school foods. Responses were categorized post hoc into the RE-AIM categories to assess SFP Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance. Analysis identified key SFP implementation characteristics (including funding source, payment model, and student eligibility), program components, SFP goals/mandates, and factors that determine what foods are served; and assessed correlations among key characteristics. Results from 67 SFPs across 10 provinces indicate considerable variability in SFP characteristics. SFP-delivering organizations reported a predominant goal of reducing student food insecurity, while nutrition and cost were cited as the main factors determining food served. Collectively, organizations were found to rely primarily on donations, while provincial funding accounted for only 30% of total funding. These findings reveal strengths and areas for improvement within Canada's current school food landscape and highlight important gaps that could be addressed with federal involvement.

Québec on the World Stage: Examining a Provincial Approach to Cultural Diplomacy

Cultural diplomacy is typically viewed as a state activity; however, substate actors shape the practice in significant ways. This article employs a neo-institutional policy analysis to explore how the provincial government of Québec advanced its cultural diplomacy, while engaging with the Canadian federal government, as well as international actors. Acknowledging overlapping claims on the cultural sector in Canada, we provide a chronological assessment of key cultural policy statements from Québec dating from the mid-twentieth century to present, placing these in context with federal developments. This assessment allows us to explore moments of friction when Québec’s efforts at global engagement challenged federal jurisdiction. Our examination argues for recognition of Québec’s mobilization of culture as a substate actor and asserts that the province benefits from both substate and state cultural diplomacy initiatives.

Description as an Act of Othering

Descriptive practices throughout Canadian archives have portrayed Indigenous societies and their members as romanticized, exotic “others” or as an uncivilized race in need of being saved from themselves. The policies, acts, and programs of governments across Canada have resulted in profoundly harmful and long- lasting impacts on Indigenous peoples. This article seeks to further understand these impacts by examining two different historical photo albums in the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development fonds held by Library and Archives Canada. Photographs are often considered connections to the past and memories of things or places that no longer exist. But what happens to those ideas when the photographs are taken not for the subject of the image, but for an institution that seeks to enshrine a particular set of ideals in order to substantiate settler actions? Photographs are not neutral objects. The subjects within the studied photographs remained either unnamed or were described using pejorative language and ethnographic “types.” Photographs act as a physical reminder of the colonial policies and interventions enacted by the settler-colonial Canadian government at both the federal and provincial levels.

Experiences of Unbelonging and Ableism in the Early Learning and Childcare Sector in British Columbia

In an era in which Canadian governments are focused on increasing families’ access to affordable early learning and childcare (ELCC), there are increasing concerns about the inclusion of children with disabilities. This paper reports on the experiences of parents of children with disabilities in accessing ELCC programs in British Columbia. Findings highlight four interrelated themes: experiences of unbelonging; systemic mechanisms that reinforce unbelonging; impacts of unbelonging on children, parents, and families; and experiences of inclusion and belonging. The paper concludes with a discussion on opportunities for disrupting structural ableism and reorienting towards a childcare system in which all children can belong.

Impact of a national dementia research consortium: The Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration in Aging (CCNA).

The Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration in Aging (CCNA) was created by the Canadian federal government through its health research funding agency, the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR), in 2014, as a response to the G7 initiative to fight dementia. Two five-year funding cycles (2014-2019; 2019-2024) have occurred following peer review, and a third cycle (Phase 3) has just begun. A unique construct was mandated, consisting of 20 national teams in Phase I and 19 teams in Phase II (with research topics spanning from basic to clinical science to health resource systems) along with cross-cutting programs to support them. Responding to the needs of researchers within the CCNA teams, a unique sample of 1173 deeply phenotyped patients with various forms of dementia was accrued and studied over eight years (COMPASS-ND). In the second phase of funding (2019-2024), a national dementia prevention program (CAN-THUMBS UP) was set up. In a short time, this prevention program became a member of the World Wide FINGERS prevention consortium. In this article, the challenges, successes, and impacts of CCNA in Canada and internationally are discussed. Short-term deliverables have occurred, along with considerable promise of impacts in the longer term. The creation of synergy, networking, capacity building, engagement of people with lived experience, and economies of scale have contributed to the considerable success of CCNA by all measures. CCNA is evidence that an organized "centrally-organized" approach to dementia research can catalyze important progress nationally and yield significant and measurable results.

Canadian Organization on Health Effects from Radiation Exposure (COHERE) strengthening co-operation within the Canadian Government on radiation research

The Canadian Organization on Health Effects from Radiation Exposure (COHERE) is a collaborative initiative between two federal organisations, Health Canada (HC) and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC). COHERE will work to advance knowledge on biological mechanisms and human health risks from exposures to ionising radiation relevant to environmental and occupational settings. The objectives of the initiative include: better aligning Health Canada's and the CNSC's radiation science research priorities to focus and leverage resources; maintaining and enhancing expertise in radiobiology and epidemiology within the Government of Canada; providing an informed and consistent federal message to the public and stakeholders on matters involving low dose and low dose-rate ionising radiation; and strengthening Canada's contribution towards international efforts on the assessment of ionising radiation doses and health effects. These objectives support the application of international recommendations, Canadian regulations, and national guidance. COHERE's vision is to contribute knowledge to reduce scientific uncertainties from low dose and dose-rate exposures. It will advance our understanding by bridging the knowledge gap between human health outcomes, and linkages to molecular- and cellular-level responses to radiation. Research priorities focus on identifying sensitive, early, and key molecular events of relevance to risk assessment. The initiative will address questions of relevance to better apprise Canadians, including radiation workers, members of the public and indigenous peoples, on health risks from low dose and low dose-rate radiation exposure and inform radiation protection frameworks at a national and international level. Furthermore, it will support global efforts to conduct collaborative undertakings and better coordinate research. The strategic research agenda (SRA) developed by COHERE specifically considers the areas of research identified by many international radiation agencies to support the current and evolving system of radiological protection. The evolution of COHERE, its SRA and its activities since inception are discussed.

Rudderless in the Storm? The Crisis of Adaptability in Canadian Governance

AbstractConditions facing Canadian governments will be challenging for the remainder of this century. If dangers are managed poorly, Canada will not thrive, and in the worst case the Canadian state will not survive. Adaptability, the capacity to anticipate and manage threats, is a critical quality for state survival in turbulent conditions. Achieving adaptability is always difficult in decentralized polities because of tendencies toward short‐sightedness, confusion, and miscoordination. Moreover, adaptability has declined in Canada in recent decades. This is partly attributable to socio‐economic transformations, and partly due to choices that Canadian leaders have made about dismantling or redesigning government institutions. Four reforms are suggested to restore adaptability in Canada: more investment in long‐term thinking, revival of national leadership summits, closer attention to the health of the Canadian public sphere, and independent review of Canada's public and political services.

The Intergenerational Legacy of Indian Residential Schools

From the late nineteenth century until the end of the twentieth century, the Canadian government collaborated with Christian churches to operate a network of boarding schools for Indigenous children to culturally and economically assimilate them. These children were taken from their families and placed into residential schools, where they were to be assimilated into the Eurocentric culture of the dominant society. Using a unique restricted-access database that asked Indigenous respondents about their family history with residential schools, in addition to questions on socioeconomic outcomes, I study the intergenerational effects of these schools. Despite previous research showing that residential schools increased human capital accumulation among attendees, I find that residential schools are associated with lower educational attainment among subsequent generations. I present evidence consistent with the notion that both cultural detachment and a breakdown in family relationships contributed to a reversal of the standard relationship between parents’ and children's human capital. Encouragingly, I find suggestive evidence that greater access to cultural centers might buffer the harmful legacy of this historical trauma.

Search the landfill: obligation of the Canadian Government to bring stolen sisters home

ABSTRACT The most pressing human rights issue in Canada is identified as the situation of its Indigenous people. Specifically, missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG) is seen as one of the crucial issues in Canada. The Government of Canada (GC) has taken positive steps to address the issue of MMIWG, including the national inquiry into MMIWG. The latest victims of the issue of MMIWG in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, are Rebecca Contois, Morgan Harris, Marcedes Myran, and an unidentified woman named as Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe. This paper explores the framework provided by the International Human Rights Law (IHRL) to address the deprivation of the human rights of MMIWG. The right to life and the right to be free from torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment is assessed using IHRL and the Genocide Convention. Finally, the paper adopts a Human Rights Based Approach (HRBA) to respect, protect, and fulfill the right to life and the right to be free from torture, cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment of MMIWG in Canada.

The Canadian Government: How to Cope with the Canadian Winter

The Canadian Federal Government has several responsibilities towards the cold season in this country. Several agencies, departments and other institutions are in charge for everything from stamps, money, passport, Environment Canada and Climate change, National Defence, Natural Resources, Fisheries and Oceans. This article analyzes the work done for each of them when it comes to winter, snow and cold in a modern perspective.

Knocking on a Locked Door: Assessing Canada’s Response to Attacks Against Human Rights Defenders

Abstract For over two decades, Canadian corporations have been the subject of severe allegations of human rights and environmental violations related to the forced imposition of their operations abroad. Despite the growing consensus within the literature and international governance community that Canadian corporations—especially within the extractive sector—are serial perpetrators of grave human rights violations and despite Canada’s international legal obligations, at present there are very little ‘hard law’ mechanisms available to hold corporations to account. Whereas much literature has been dedicated to how Canadian corporations are facilitated by advocacy and lobbying efforts at the level of Canadian embassies in home-state-countries, much less studied is how these same state actors work towards protecting and preventing human rights defenders from harm. In this article we critically analyse the implementation of the Canadian government’s Voices at Risk guidelines (2016) from the perspective of two Canadian human rights advocacy Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) supporting communities in Guatemala, drawing from email and verbal communications as well as Access to Information Requests from 2016 to 2021 regarding the Escobal mine. We assess the usefulness of advocacy at the level of embassies as a way of protecting defenders and demonstrate that, in our experience, calls for support to defenders were ignored. We argue that, within the context of foreign policy which prioritizes trade and investment over all other government policies and wherein corporate violence is met with impunity, current Canadian policies aimed at protecting human rights defenders are essentially useless as an advocacy strategy.

The digital health landscape at children’s hospitals in Canada

ABSTRACT Objectives Canadian hospitals have historically lagged behind peer nations in terms of adoption of digital health tools. The aim of this study was to assess the current state of adoption of digital health tools at children’s hospitals in Canada. Methods We conducted an online survey of Canadian pediatric tertiary-care hospitals between January and July 2023. The 35-item questionnaire was administered in English and French. Hospital characteristics, informatics infrastructure data and electronic health record (EHR) functionality data were summarized using descriptive statistics. Results The survey was completed by 15 of the 17 (88.2%) pediatric hospitals in Canada. All institutions had an EHR with 10 (66.6%) being fully digitized and five (33.3%) being partially digitized. Funding and availability of clinicians with expertise in clinical informatics were cited as barriers to implementing digital health tools. The availability of core EHR functionalities ranged from 53.3% for medication to 100% for the presence of a laboratory and radiology information system. Only five (33.3%) institutions reported that they had a patient portal. Discussion While all hospitals in this study had an EHR, functionalities varied greatly between centers. Canada lags behind the United States in terms of adoption of digital health tools such as patient portals likely due to governmental mandates and incentives, and a focus on cultivating a physician informatics workforce. Conclusion Canadian pediatric hospitals lag behind peer institutions in digital maturity. This study highlights the perceived need from hospitals for policies, funding, and resources from the Canadian government to help increase the uptake of comprehensive EHRs.