It has long been presumed that local governments suffer from limited policy capacity compared to other orders of government. Yet few efforts have been made to empirically measure and test this assumption.
The Lab has begun a new research project, led by Prof. Gabriel Eidelman in collaboration with Prof. Daniel Henstra (University of Waterloo), to estimate policy capacity within the 30 local governments in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area. Our goal is to calculate the extent of the municipal policy workforce, by identifying the number of practitioners responsible for policy research, analysis, evaluation, and advice, and assessing the prevalence and characteristics of policy work at the local level.
If you work for a GTHA municipality and wish to contribute to our research, be sure to contact us.