Working on open government in Canadian think tanks
This is part of a series in which I explore different, high-level ways to work on improving how government works and how citizens inform, direct and monitor that work, from the perspective of open government and civic tech.
Which think tanks are working on open government in Canada?
To answer this question, I did three things:
- Make a list of 76 Canadian think tanks and policy institutes
- Use Google Search to find occurrences of “open government” or “open data” on each website (or the French equivalents)
- Browse the results for the 56 think tanks with occurrences to see whether they were working on open government or merely reporting on it
The 6 leaders
The following think tanks have delivered or funded projects or research, or at least written long articles relating to open government or open data, within the last three years.
- The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) was an initiator of the Open Data Charter in May 2015 and is a partner to the Open Data for Development initiative started in January 2015, through which it funds open data research.
- The Mowat Centre released in February 2015 the An Open Future: Data priorities for the non-for-profit sector report by Jamie Van Ymeren, Policy Associate at the Mowat NFP research hub. See its TLDR article, Better Collaboration for Better Government.
- The Manning Centre (I include the activities of the Manning Foundation) launched Council Tracker in 2014 to monitor Calgary’s Council. In October 2015, the Centre released Council Tracker reports for the councils in Hamilton, Toronto and Ottawa. In May 2014, the Municipal Government & Open Data report was released. The Manning Centre’s website also describes a Municipal Governance Project. The Council Tracker work seems to be the solo work of Jeromy Farkas, Research Fellow.
- Canada 2020 has a long article Rebuilding Public Trust: Open Government & Open Dialogue in the Government of Canada by Don Lenihan, Senior Associate, Policy and Engagement and Carolyn Bennett.
- The Canadian Chamber of Commerce included Putting Federal Government Data to Work for SMEs in its national policy mandate in 2014 and included open data as a policy area in its evaluation of federal election platform policies in 2015.
- The Institute for Citizen-Centred Service hosts an Open Data and Information Working Group, composed of public sector leaders including Chief Information Officers.
I mention individuals’ names only to highlight that they are the only person in those think tanks whose publications relate to open government.
Considering the low throughput and limited positions, I don’t see an opportunity to work on open government in Canadian think tanks — unless you create the opportunity!
The exception is IDRC, but I don’t consider it a think tank, since it’s a Crown corporation. McGill University and Policy Options consider it one, so it’s listed here.
The 9 followers
These think tanks don’t have any publicly available open government work, but they host events and write articles about it. In alphabetical order:
- Canada’s Public Policy Forum
- Canadian Urban Institute
- Conference Board of Canada
- Institute for Research on Public Policy
- Institute of Public Administration of Canada
- Institute on Governance
- Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto
- Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto
- Samara
So that’s it — 15 think tanks in total thinking about open government. I list these nine followers as there is potential for them to initiate work.
I invite you to review the list of 76 think tanks and come to your own conclusions — and let me know if you discover any new organizations!
