Canada PoliticsSince Harper majority, Canada slips in international governance ranking: report
Anti-Conservatives were armed with new ammo, on Thursday, in the form of a new international study suggesting that the "quality of governance provided by the government of Canada deteriorated" since May 2011.
May 2011, of course, precisely correlates with the birth of the Harper majority government.
The the third iteration of the Sustainable Governance Indicators (SGI) project, published by Germany-based Bertelsmann Foundation, reviewed 140 quantitative and qualitative SGI indicators in 41 OECD and EU countries.
The 'report' about Canada — co-published with Ottawa's Centre for the Study of Living Standards — says that while Canada remains atop of the world in terms economic and social policies, it's lost ground in all major governance categories.
While some of the categories seem awfully subjective, the report does cite some specfic examples of policies that may have contributed to the drop in rankings.
The study author's claim that the impedance of Access to Information requests , the hostility between the Finance department and the Parliamentary Budget Office and a lack of evidenced-based decision were all examples of detrimental behaviours demonstrated by the Harper government.
"There are numerous examples in which Canada’s government has demonstrated a lack of commitment both to the use of evidence in its decision-making and to the provision of high-quality data. For example, the crime rate has exhibited a strong downward trend in Canada for many years. Yet the government continues to pursue a “tough on crime” agenda, allocating scarce resources to the issue that many feel could be better deployed elsewhere. Political calculations in this case trump evidence.
"The most egregious example of lack of commitment to providing high-quality data was the government’s decision to replace the mandatory long form of the 2011 census with a voluntary survey."
The biggest maleficence, according to the report, is Canada's action — or inaction — on the environment file.
"Environmental policy is the area that has most tarnished the government’s reputation for sustainable governance, both domestically and internationally," notes the report about Canada, with special mention of the government's omnibus budget Bill 35 which introduced major changes to environmental legislation
"The government’s skeptical attitude toward global warming and apparent unwillingness to offer an effective strategy for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, as manifested by its repeal of the Kyoto Accord, are seen by many as inconsistent with sustainable governance."
[ More Politics: Despite open nomination vow, Trudeau bars pro-life candidates from running as Liberals ]
Andrew Sharpe, executive director of the CSLS, told Yahoo Canada News that while other factors (ie: improvement in other countries) might may have contributed to Canada's lower rankings, the role of the Harper government should not be minimized.
"Since the sustainable governance indicators are primarily policy variables, changes in policies by the federal government play a key role in their evolution over time," he said.
"In absolute terms, the scores on most variables for Canada declined between the 2011 and 2014 reports. This strongly suggests that it was actions by the federal government that drove the deterioration in Canada’s rankings.
"The rankings can be turned around fairly rapidly as policies can change quickly. For example, Canada’s low score and ranking on environmental policies could be improved through changes in this policy area."
Are you a politics junkie?
Follow @politicalpoints on Twitter!
