Our Work

In Working Paper 27, Looking beyond GDP: Measuring prosperity in Ontario, the Institute analyzes the province and its peer jurisdictions across 11 measures of well-being: access to services, community, civic engagement, education, environment, health, housing, income, jobs, life satisfaction, and safety. The results reveal that Ontario is 5th overall among its peer group. Ontario achieves the greatest results in access to services, health, and safety, but the lowest results in jobs and income. ...read more

Strengthening clusters can lead to increased productivity, economic growth, and prosperity because clusters foster interactions that can energize the regional economy. In Working Paper 26, Clusters in Ontario the Institute highlights five strong, traded clusters in Ontario. The Institute recommends that the Ontario government facilitate the growth of such clusters - rather than replicate them or force their existence. 

The Institute recommends that the Ontario government facilitate the growth...

Licence to Innovate Revisited provides perspectives on government innovation from people within and outside the Ontario Public Service. This leads to a revised framework, additional case studies, and actionable recommendations.

The Institute recommends the government of Ontario:

Integrate innovation to counter the risk-averse culture. 

• Building innovation into core government activities signals that it is desirable and acceptable.

Revise funding frameworks and apply behavioural insights...

In its 25th Working Paper, the Institute models the impact of Ontario's cap-and-trade program on economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions. According to macroeconomic modelling under four scenarios, Ontario should link with the Western Climate Initiative (WCI) as soon as possible and provide support to its carbon intensive at-risk industries. In doing so, the province will achieve the greatest reductions in emissions while maintaining economic growth and competitiveness. The four scenarios...

Less than half of policy professionals in Ontario's Public Service feel innovation is valued in their work. However, enhancing innovation in policy design, processes, and implementation can build more effective and efficient public services. In Working Paper 24, Licence to innovate, the Institute reviews and compares innovation in the government of Ontario and abroad.

Government’s failure to innovate today means less effective and less efficient public services tomorrow. Based on comparative...

In A place to grow: Scaling up Ontario's firms, the Institute looks at over 140,000 businesses in Ontario spanning seven key sectors to determine the factors that are most strongly associated with large firms. The results vary drastically by sector and firm size, which implies that targeted, sector-specific efforts are required to maximize Ontario’s potential.

In general, firms in goods-producing sectors thrive when engaging in trade activities, especially exporting. Location is also a strong...

Discussions regarding infrastructure investment as a driver of economic growth have returned to the forefront of policy debates. Both Ontario’s provincial government and the federal government have proposed record commitments to infrastructure in their latest budgets. However, not all infrastructure assets enhance productivity. Fostering productivity growth is the single greatest challenge for both public and private sectors in Ontario. Simply investing in infrastructure will not necessarily...

Inspired by the announcement of the Jobs and Prosperity Fund (JPF), the Institute for Competitiveness & Prosperity conducted extensive research comparing Ontario to regional competitors to assess the areas where the government should act to improve business attractiveness. Our Working Paper 21 – Open for business: Strategies for improving Ontario’s business attractiveness – aims to advise the government on how to get the best return on investment for the Fund.

There are many factors behind a...

Ontario must re-think how it delivers and finances health care. In Working Paper 20, Building better health care: Policy opportunities for Ontario, the Institute examines how the performance of the Ontario health care system compares internationally on dimensions of efficiency and equity. Ontario is among the jurisdictions with the highest total per capita health care spending in the OECD, yet the province trails international peers in overall health care performance.

Over the last decade,...

Ontario must re-evaluate its public sector compensation levels.

In the era of sunshine lists and pension debates, there has been increasing public focus on compensation packages among public sector workers. In The realities of Ontario’s public sector compensation, the Institute examines the evolution of public sector compensation in Ontario and provides insights as to how the province’s public workers are paid relative to their counterparts in the private sector. The Institute finds that...

Ontario has improved its tax system markedly in recent years by introducing the harmonized sales tax, phasing out the capital tax, and lowering corporate tax rates. However, many changes can still be made that would benefit individuals, businesses, and government. In Taxing for growth: A close look at tax policy in Ontario, the Institute picks up on its previous recommendations for tax reform in Ontario and examines current policy to identify ways Ontario can create a tax system that spurs...

A rising number of workers in Toronto are employed in temporary, part-time, low-paying positions in routine-service industries, but there is a way forward.

Ontario’s economy, and its traditional economic stronghold in the Toronto region, are slowly returning to pre-recessionary levels of employment. Yet there has been growing concern about the kinds of jobs the economy is creating. The growing prevalence of “precarious employment” – jobs that are temporary, part-time, with few benefits and low...