The Canadian Priorities Agenda (CPA) is designed to initiate a broad-based and informed public debate on policy choices and priorities for Canada over the medium term. The central theme of the project is scarcity and the need for choice: governments have limited resources and therefore must choose carefully which policies to pursue and which to leave behind. In so doing, they must weigh not only political considerations, but also the overall costs, benefits and distributional effects of alternative policies. One of the main objectives of the CPA is to produce research on key policy challenges within a common analytical framework based on that overarching perspective.

Phase I - Setting the agenda

In January 2006, the IRPP brought together a group of twelve distinguished policy experts to decide on the most important broad policy challenges facing Canada over the medium term. The results of this meeting, along with each participant's top priorities and rationale, were published in the April/May 2006 issue of Policy Options.

Phase II - Commissioning the research

Based on the results of the agenda-setters meeting, the IRPP commissioned a research paper for each of eight broad policy challenges. In addition to describing the nature of the challenge at hand, each analyst was asked to propose three specific policies designed to address this challenge and to analyze the overall effects of these polices. Each paper will be reviewed by two critics (experts in relevant disciplines and practitioners), who provide their assessment and critique of the paper.

Policy Challenge	Author	Critics
Human capital policy brief	W. Craig Riddell (University of British Columbia)	Serge Coulombe (University of Ottawa) Jane Gaskell (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education)
Climate change policy brief	Mark Jaccard and Nic Rivers (Simon Fraser University)	Christopher Green (McGill University) James Meadowcroft (Carleton University)
Natural resources policy brief	Nancy Olewiler (Simon Fraser University)	Vic Adamowicz (University of Alberta) Peter Victor (York University)
Population aging policy brief	David Foot (University of Toronto)	Peter Hicks (Human Resources and Social Development Canada) Susan McDaniel (University of Windsor)
Economic security policy brief	Jean-Yves Duclos (Laval University)	David Green (University of British Columbia) Kathy O'Hara (Human Resources and Social Development Canada)
Health outcomes policy brief	Robert Evans, Clyde Hertzman and Steve Morgan (University of British Columbia)	Dennis Raphael (York University) Raisa Deber (University of Toronto)
Productivity policy brief	Andrew Sharpe (Centre for the Study of Living Standards)	Don Drummond (TD Bank) Richard Harris (Simon Fraser University)
Trade and globalization policy brief	Michael Hart (Norman Paterson School of International Affairs)	Jonathan Fried (International Monetary Fund) Keith Head (University of British Columbia)

Phase III - Making the choices

In the final phase of the project, the analysts and critics were convened in March 2007 to present their arguments to a panel of six judges, eminent individuals chosen for their knowledge and expertise in Canadian economic and social policy:

• Wendy Dobson (Professor, Rotman School of Management and former federal Deputy Minister of Finance)
  
  
• Alain Dubuc (Syndicated columnist for La Presse and author of Éloge de la richesse)
  
  
• John Helliwell (Research Fellow, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Professor emeritus, University of British Columbia and author of Globalization and Well-Being)
  
  
• Richard Lipsey (Fellow, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Professor emeritus, Simon Fraser University and co-author of Economic Transformations)
  
  
• Carolyn Tuohy (Professor emeritus of political science, University of Toronto)
  
  
• William Watson (Associate Professor of economics, McGill University and columnist, National Post, Montreal Gazette and Ottawa Citizen)
  
  

Student papers

As part of a graduate seminar at the University of Toronto's School of Public Policy and Governance based on the CPA project, students took on the role of judges and wrote papers proposing a policy agenda based on a broadened menu of options. The award-winning papers were published by the IRPP in September 2009:

Two for One: Building a Versatile Canadian Priorities Agenda
David Suk

A Canadian Priorities Agenda: Ensuring Future Prosperity
Karen Thorburn