Our Focus

Under the leadership of Martha Hall Findlay,  The School of Public Policy provides a practical, global and focused perspective on public policy analysis and practice in four focus areas:

We have created a framework of programs within each of these areas that allows us to address specific policy issues confronting business and government.

Social Policy and Health

The goal of our Social Policy and Health program is to improve the lives of Canadians by employing an objective, evidence-based approach to assessing existing and proposed public policies. Our goal is to identify practical solutions that cut through rhetoric designed to polarize debate and freeze policymakers into inaction.

We apply this approach to programs in two policy areas:

Energy & Environmental Policy

Through disciplined research and analysis, the Energy and Environmental Policy research division provides practical solutions to Canada’s challenging energy and environmental policy problems. We do this by injecting evidence into policy debates, and by engaging with decision makers, stakeholders and the public to create a forum for open and meaningful dialogue among different perspectives.

The research division has five priority areas for its research and outreach:

• Canadian Network for Energy Policy Research and Analysis

The Fiscal and Economic Policy Research Division contributes economic, fiscal, and social policy expertise rooted in an understanding of evidence that is more cognizant of heterogeneity and intersectionality, while also being attentive to systems and structures of power, to support inclusive economic growth while advancing and shaping discourse in this area.

Fiscal and Economic Policy consists of several current research projects under several topic areas:

International Policy and Trade

In 2011, The School of Public Policy asked many of Canada’s leaders in business, government and academia what they wanted to see in a new program of international policy studies. The answers were clear and resounding: A program that was practical, not theoretical; one that provides focus on the economics of international policy, particularly issues related to trade and Canada’s ties to emerging markets.

The School of Public Policy took that data and launched an international policy program that reflects what we were told was needed: A pragmatic program, designed to create maximum benefit for Canada in terms of the expansion and security of our international relationships.

With this objective in mind, The School has three priority areas for its international policy work: