Housing access-8 ↓
31affordability, supply and homelessness
PUBLIC GOODS / FEDERALISM / DELIVERY / WELL-BEING
Measure what
Canada shares.
A policy observatory tracking how institutions convert public resources into housing, health, infrastructure, resilience, opportunity and trust.
01 / PUBLIC-VALUE BAROMETER
Provision, access and
collective capacity.
Higher scores indicate stronger capacity and access. Directional changes summarize the current editorial reading.
SYSTEM SYNTHESIS
Canada’s public-goods challenge is less scarcity alone than coordination, delivery capacity and unequal access.
02 / POLICY DEVELOPMENTS
What is moving
01 · Housing
Federal policy increasingly links infrastructure funding to housing outcomes
Supply, non-market housing and municipal enabling systems are moving into one policy frame.
02 · Quality of lifeCanada’s framework now spans 91 indicators
Well-being measurement provides a broader account of public value than GDP alone.
03 · ProductivityThe 2026 economic update links investment, infrastructure and growth
Public capital is being positioned as both a competitiveness and community-building instrument.
04 · ClimatePolicy is shifting toward climate competitiveness
Decarbonization, investment and regional implementation are being recast as one agenda.
05 · FederalismDelivery depends on orders of government that control different levers
Housing, health, climate and infrastructure expose recurring coordination and accountability gaps.
06 · Well-beingIndicator gaps are themselves policy signals
Safety, homelessness and Canada’s place in the world remain areas of measurement development.
07 · Indigenous public goodsAccess must be read through jurisdiction and self-determination
National averages can conceal structurally different service and infrastructure realities.
08 · Public capacityThe state’s ability to implement is now a substantive policy variable
Workforce, procurement, data and evaluation determine whether announced policy becomes public value.
03 / RESEARCH + BOOKS
Evidence, arguments
and new agendas.
Peer-reviewed work, books, think-tank studies, public data and government plans answer different questions. Read together, they expose gaps.
01 · Journal
Canadian Public Policy
Economics and social-policy research across Canadian institutions.
02 · JournalCanadian Public Administration
Public management, governance and implementation research.
03 · JournalCanadian Journal of Political Science
Federalism, democracy, representation and political behaviour.
04 · JournalHealthcare Policy
Canadian health-system policy, governance and delivery.
05 · Think tankInstitute for Research on Public Policy
Long-form work on social policy, institutions, immigration and federalism.
06 · Think tankPublic Policy Forum
Research on democracy, media, growth and public institutions.
07 · Think tankInstitute on Municipal Finance and Governance
Cities, housing, infrastructure and multilevel governance.
08 · DataStatistics Canada Quality of Life Hub
91 indicators across prosperity, health, society, environment and governance.
09 · BookPublic Service in Tough Times
A 2026 account of austerity, burnout and the people behind public administration.
010 · BooksDonner Prize
Annual shortlist and prize for Canadian public-policy books.
011 · BooksBalsillie Prize for Public Policy
Canadian nonfiction engaging major policy questions.
012 · GovernmentFederal departmental plans
Forward priorities, indicators, spending and planned results.
04 / FRAMING TRACKER
Eight Canadas
inside one debate.
Each frame identifies different problems, assigns responsibility differently and privileges different evidence.
Shared institutions and infrastructure require reinvestment.
Broad / risingPolicy legitimacy turns on housing, prices and household security.
DominantPublic investment should crowd in growth and strategic capacity.
RisingDebt, taxes and aging narrow the feasible policy space.
PersistentImplementation capability matters as much as program design.
RisingOutcomes depend on incentives across governments, not Ottawa alone.
PersistentUniversal provision must account for differentiated rights and histories.
Under-integratedNational averages obscure northern, rural, urban and regional systems.
Emerging05 / METHOD + SOURCES
Public value,
not one headline.
The prototype normalizes public indicators to a 0–100 capacity scale, inverts adverse measures and pairs current levels with 12-month direction.
- Start with the Statistics Canada Quality of Life domains.
- Add delivery capacity and intergovernmental coordination.
- Disaggregate by region, income, identity and urbanity.
- Separate policy announcement, output and lived outcome.
- Convert tensions into testable questions—not rankings.
01
Well-beingStatistics Canada Quality of Life Framework
↗02Outcomes across five domains and central indicators
EconomyStatistics Canada / Finance Canada
↗03Income, productivity, distribution and public finance
HousingCMHC / HICC
↗04Supply, affordability, need and infrastructure
HealthCIHI / Statistics Canada
↗05Access, outcomes, spending and workforce
ClimateECCC / Canadian Climate Institute
↗06Emissions, risks, adaptation and policy
GovernanceElections Canada / V-Dem / surveys
↗07Participation, integrity, trust and inclusion
IndigenousIndigenous Services Canada / distinctions-based data
↗08Infrastructure, services and community well-being
Public accountsTreasury Board / PBO / Auditors General
↗Spending, results, implementation and scrutiny