New Ontario-Focused Public Policy Research Centre Opens at the University of Toronto

The Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation, housed at the School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Toronto, is officially launching on January 25, 2010.

January 25, 2010

For Immediate Release

/New Ontario Focused Public Policy Research Centre Opens At the University of Toronto / Toronto – The new Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation, housed at the School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Toronto, is officially launching on January 25th, 2010. Premier Dalton McGuinty will be delivering remarks at the official launch, which will take place from 5-7 p.m at the Terrence Donnely CCBR building at 160 College Street on the university’s St. George campus.

The Mowat Centre will be undertaking policy research that will engage and encourage collaboration between public and private sectors, social innovators and government, with a strong and prosperous Ontario as its focus. The centre will lead collaborative, applied policy research on policy issues of national importance. Its first major project will be the formation of a Commission on Modernizing Canada’s System of Support for the Unemployed, to be launched in February in 2010.

Dr. Matthew Mendelsohn, founding Director of the Mowat Centre, says that policy changes are required to ensure that Canada is can continue to prosper in the global economy while ensuring the public services citizens rely upon are preserved.

“We need to modernize some of our most important national policy frameworks, like employment insurance. And these changes have to be informed by the new Ontario realities. The extent of redistribution from Ontario to other parts of the country is no longer justifiable, and is no longer affordable,” he says.

Mendelsohn notes that almost 2 in 5 Canadians live in Ontario. “If a particular federal policy is not working for Ontario, it is not working for Canada,” he says. “And the best solutions will come when governments collaborate with the private and non-profit sectors, and social innovators, in the policy development process.”

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What: Launch of new Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation

Who: Premier Dalton McGuinty, public, private, non-profit thought leaders

When: Monday, January 25 at 5:00 p.m.

Where: Terrence Donnely CCBR Building, 160 College Street, St. George campus


For more information, please contact:

Laura Rosen Cohen, Communications Associate Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation

Tel: (416) 978-7081
E: laura@mowatcentre.ca
www.mowatcentre.ca

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