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Macdonald-Laurier Institute

Canada’s systemic failure to manage complex public policy issues

Canada faces a systemic failure at both the political and bureaucratic levels to manage complex public policy issues.

September 28, 2023
in Aaron Wudrick, Domestic Policy, Energy Policy, Foreign Policy, Latest News, Indigenous Affairs, Managing Indigenous Prosperity, Releases, Heather Exner-Pirot, Ken Coates, Richard Shimooka, Shawn Whatley
Reading Time: 2 mins read
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Canada’s systemic failure to manage complex public policy issues

OTTAWA, ON (September 28, 2023): From a stymied oil and gas sector to a healthcare system that struggles under mismanagement, from a multi-billion-dollar infrastructure bank that hasn’t built anything to a disastrous lack of planning to safeguard local peoples in Afghanistan in 2021, our government has been unable to accomplish its stated goals across a huge range of policy priorities.  We can’t seem to get anything done in Canada.

In Canada’s Governance Crisis, MLI senior fellows Richard Shimooka, Heather Exner-Pirot, Ken Coates, Aaron Wudrick, and Shawn Whatley document the government’s inability to deliver on key policy priorities. Each article demonstrates the immensely damaging consequences of our policy paralysis, both in terms of the overwhelming decay in state capacity and in terms of corroding trust and morale within the civil service.

The exact causes of our government’s incapacity to deliver (even on the political priorities of the governing Liberal Party) are not always the same, but some cross cutting governance issues are apparent.

“The key dynamic that underlines this issue is between the political leadership and the bureaucracy,” writes Senior Fellow Richard Shimooka. At the core of this issue “is the lack of political leadership to make decisions and push them through.”

Several factors are at play in this lack of effective political leadership, including: the centralization of decision-making in the PMO (causing a bottleneck effect, hamstringing Minister’s offices), subtle cultural shifts within the bureaucracy over the past 30 years from “providing unvarnished advice for the political leadership to defending its stated political positions,” a general focus on political messaging, rather than deliverables, and, finally, the combined damage of “inertia cause by the governments failure to make any choices at all, which deprives the public, including the media, opposition, and other actors from even offering criticisms or suggestions to course correct.”

The authors conclude: “This report is really a preliminary study of the topic – a sketch of worrying trends rather than a comprehensive portrait of the issues at hand. There are plenty of different avenues to explore and we hope others will carry the baton further to push Canada to live up to our ideals of peace, order, and good government.”

To learn more, read the full paper here:

***

For further information, media are invited to contact:

Skander Belouizdad
Communications Officer
613-482-8327 x111
skander.belouizdad@macdonaldlaurier.ca

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  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
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    • Domestic Policy
      • Economic Policy
      • Justice
      • Rights and Freedoms
      • Assisted Suicide (MAID)
      • Health Care
      • COVID-19
      • Gender Identity
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • AI, Technology and Innovation
      • Media and Telecoms
      • Housing
      • Immigration
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Competition Policy
    • Energy Policy
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy
      • Israel-Hamas War
      • Ukraine
      • Taiwan
      • China
      • Europe and Russia
      • Indo-Pacific
      • Middle East and North Africa
      • North America
      • Foreign Interference
      • National Defence
      • National Security
      • Foreign Affairs
    • Indigenous Affairs
  • Projects
    • CNAPS (Center for North American Prosperity and Security)
    • The Promised Land
    • Voices that Inspire: The Macdonald-Laurier Vancouver Speaker Series
    • Dragon at the Door
    • Justice Report Card
    • The Great Energy Crisis
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • Double Trouble
    • Digital Policy & Connectivity
    • Managing Indigenous Prosperity
    • Defending The Marketplace of Ideas
    • Reforming the University
    • Past Projects
      • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
      • The Transatlantic Program
      • COVID Misery Index
      • Speak for Ourselves
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
      • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
      • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
      • Straight Talk
      • Labour Market Report
      • Leading Economic Indicator
      • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
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