Grants and Contributions

The event features highlights from the Public Policy Forum’s report, "Public Service Innovation and Leadership During COVID-19," which captures groundbreaking work underway by the public service across Canada in supporting citizens, businesses, non-profit organizations, and First Nations, Indigenous and Métis communities throughout the pandemic. Case studies include work done by the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, Health Canada and Service Canada (e.g., the COVID-19 update email service).

The contribution to the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) is to support the 12th OECD Conference on Measuring Regulatory Performance, expected to be held in Ottawa, Canada on June 22-25, 2021. The objective of the MRP conference series is to allow for in-depth discussions on specific topics related to measuring regulatory performance. It also provides an opportunity for OECD countries to discuss how improvements to regulatory governance can deliver benefits to business and citizens.

TBS is partnering with the Canada School of Public Service (CSPS), the Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) to convene a Dialogue Study Team on Nimbleness, Accountability and Oversight in Times of Crisis. The project will connect knowledge mobilizers (scholars) with knowledge users (practitioners) to examine key challenges in public policy and administration facing Canada and to support dialogue and co-development of ideas between public servants and scholars to share emerging knowledge and practical insight. The teams will work in three sub-theme groups: 1- Decision-Making, 2- Internal Accountability Relationships, and 3- Government-Parliament Accountability, each led by an executive sponsor and lead scholar, and supported by a research assistant (graduate student). As well, the project will seek out and apply recent research to current and emerging challenges, and promote a multi-disciplinary approach anchored by public administration scholars to ensure insights are articulated to governance and public administration contexts. Findings of this table will be presented at a seminar hosted by the CSPS President and partners in spring 2021, and published by IPAC as part of its New Directions series.

The Canada Green Building Council will assess the costs to retrofit existing buildings to net zero carbon levels. It will develop methodology for modelling the energy performance of several building archetypes in multiple Canadian climate zones. The costing study will evaluate the benefits of retrofits in terms of: i) capital cost requirements; ii) annualized operational savings; iii) pathways for undertaking deep low carbon retrofits; and, iv) technologies and approaches that lead to cost effective and impactful interventions.

The Public Policy Forum hosted on October 13, 2020, a virtual lecture which highlighted key elements of the Public Policy Forum's Public Service Innovation and Leadership During COVID-19 project, specifically for work accomplished by the public sector across Canada in supporting citizens, businesses, non-profit organizations, Indigenous communities and municipalities in these unprecedented times.

Drawing on innovation studies literature, and on quasi-experimental methodologies, this research pilots a horizontal impact assessment approach that involves multiple business innovation and growth support (BIGS) programs. The project will employ the newly constructed BIGS programs’ longitudinal data series at the firm level. It is performing, in part, a proof of concept pilot of the value of this novel data series for evidence-based analysis of the impacts of BIGS support programs.