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CMNS 261
Finding Public Policy Documents
Sylvia Roberts
[email protected]
778-782-3681
Policy: Definition
• …an overall plan embracing general goals and
procedures and intended to guide and
determine decisions.
The Penguin English Dictionary .(2000). Retrieved 04 February
2006, from xreferplus. http://www.xreferplus.com/entry/1163851 .
Public policy changes initiated by…
• Political parties (election promises)
• International treaties
• Government departments responding to
environmental influences, e.g. technology
• Interest groups such as consumer or trade
associations
• Expert bodies
Public policy documented in…
• Legislation: bills, statutes, regulations
• Committee reports, proceedings, evidence
• Record of debates (Hansard)
• Annual reports & budgets for ministries,
government agencies
• Position papers by ministries, NGOs, industry
associations, think tanks, etc.
• Policy manuals
• Case law
Event
Document
1. Legislation introduced
2. Debate in parliament
2nd reading
3. Referred to committee
4. 3rd reading
5. Senate
6. Royal assent
7. In force
8. Specific aspects
regulated
1st reading bill
Hansard
record of debates
Committee report
3rd reading bill
Possible amendments
Annual statutes
Order in Council
Regulations
Public policy research
• Both primary & secondary sources are
important in understanding public policy
• Ask yourself:
• What’s the subject of the policy?
• What jurisdiction is responsible: federal,
provincial, municipal / local?
• Is the policy based on law or some other authority?
• What documents express this policy?
Primary sources
• Crucial in defining policy
• Primary public policy documents produced and
distributed by government departments &
agencies, legislative bodies, courts
• Documentary research into public policy
involves records of
• Intended policy
• Implementation & interpretation of policy
• Review of policy
Secondary sources
• Provide background for in-depth analysis
• Provide clues to help identify primary documents
• Examples:
• Monographs & research reports
• Academic journal articles
• News articles
• Reports from think tanks & policy institutes
• Position papers produced by interest groups
(industry, NGOs, consumers, professionals)
RESEARCH TIPS
• CHRONOLOGY: trace policy issue not
document
• READ the policy document
• Follow the research guides
• Take good notes as you go AND follow leads
for chronology & interest groups
• Talk to librarians if you encounter difficulties
• Use citation guides for government documents
How to find policy sources?
• START by reading your policy document
• Note significant groups, events and
documents, especially:
• Government (ministries, agencies, committees)
• Interest groups, researchers, lobbyists (witnesses,
submissions)
• Legislation, law cases, policy papers
• Significant events and dates
Branches of Canadian Gov’t
• Our Country, Our Parliament
• Legislative (Parliament, elected members, law-making)
• House of Commons
• Senate
• Executive (government, decision making, management)
• Cabinet (ministers)
• Federal departments
• Judicial (Federal courts)
Legislative branch documents
• Bills (proposed legislation)
• Statutes (legislation that’s been passed)
• Regulations (specific aspects of statutes)
• Committee reports
• Minutes & evidence of committee meetings
• Hansard (record of Parliamentary debates)
Finding legislative documents
• Parliamentary web site
• Pending legislation (bills): LEGISinfo
• Committee business via Senate or House of
Commons pages
• Choose committee
• Choose session of parliament
• Search the text of the Debates of the House of
Commons in Hansard
• Library of Parliament Legislative summaries
• Use secondary source (specialized encyclopedias,
indexes, articles) to find relevant legislation by
topic
Executive branch documents
• Position papers
• Program reports
• Studies
• Proposed budgets
• Task force & Royal Commission reports
• Annual reports & other administrative materials
Finding executive documents
• Search Government of Canada, to identify key gov’t
agencies concerned with this topic
• Continue by searching/browsing web sites for these specific
ministries or government agencies
• Use the Canadian Research Index to identify gov’t reports
and policy papers by topic
• Look for references to gov’t bodies and specific policy
documents in academic literature and news articles
Judicial branch (Law reports)
• Law reports are published judicial decisions
e.g. CCH Canadian Ltd v. Law Society of Upper Canada
• Use secondary sources specific to legal materials
to identify case reports by topic:
• The Canadian encyclopaedic digest, western,
• The Canadian Abridgement Digests
• Index to Canadian Legal Literature
• You can also find references to case law in academic
literature and news articles
Interest groups
• Legislation & government policy is influenced
by consultation with constituents / citizens and
with interest groups
• Interest groups may focus on a single issue or
represent a specific political perspective on
many issues
Interest Groups may represent:
• Professionals
• Consumers
• Citizens
• Think tanks
• Trade unions
• Bureaucrats
• Industry
• Activists
• NGOs
• Cultural perspectives
(language, religion)
• Demographic perspectives
(disabilities, seniors, poverty)
Identifying Interest Groups
• Begin identifying stakeholders for your policy
issue by looking at list of witnesses and
submissions in your policy document
• Supplement this with individuals or groups
named in secondary sources (e.g. news) and
on association web sites
Identifying Interest Groups’ Positions
• Go to the Parliamentary web site to find
Committee proceedings, minutes and evidence
• Look for publications by or about these groups
on the web, such as:
• position papers
• listserv discussions
• letters to government
• Use news sources to search for articles that
mention or quote them
Other national policy documents
• Government structures or their view on a policy
issue may differ from Canada
• You can use government portals to search for
documents BUT it’s easier to identify a related
document by searching secondary sources
(news or article indexes, web searches)
• THEN search for specific document using the
name