President & Chief Executive Officer
Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP)

Overview

The Institute for Research on Public Policy was created as a result of a commitment the government of Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau made in its first Speech from the Throne in 1968 to establish an independent and autonomous institute for public policy research, whose work would be available to all governments.

The IRPP was then officially founded in 1972 as an independent, national, bilingual, not-for-profit organization that seeks to improve public policy in Canada by generating research, providing insight, and informing debate on current and emerging policy issues facing Canadians and their governments.

The Institute's current research agenda is focused on five issues: the Canadian federation, the social safety net for working-age adults, unlocking demand for Canadian innovation, skills development and adult learning, and the challenges of an aging population.

The IRPP publishes peer-reviewed research and acts as a convenor of policy debates by organizing conferences, round tables, and panel discussions among stakeholders, academics, policy-makers and the general public. It is also the publisher of Policy Options magazine and the home of the Centre of Excellence on the Canadian Federation.

Political orientation

The founding principles of the IRPP state that "the Institute should dedicate itself to impartial service of the national cultures, the various regions and the various governments of the people of Canada in its research and analysis on public policy questions." The IRPP's Board of Directors and staff have had members with ties to all of the major Canadian political parties, and has had numerous unaffiliated members.

Governance & Finance

The Board of Directors has 16 members, hailing from across Canada. Directors of the board are appointed by the members of the Institute. The Hon. A. Anne McLellan, Senior Advisor with Bennett Jones LLP., has been the chair of the Board since December 2018.

Presidents are selected by the Board of Directors. The IRPP’s most recent president, Graham Fox, is former strategic policy advisor at Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP (now Dentons LLP) and former chief of staff to the Rt. Hon. Joe Clark. He served as the IRPP's president and CEO from 2011 to 2021.

The operations of the IRPP are financed by an endowment fund, to which federal and provincial governments and the private sector contributed in the early 1970s. This endowment fund was conceived with the goal of ensuring the Institute's research independence by providing it with financial independence.

The Institute is a registered charity under the Income Tax Act; as such, in addition to its endowment, the IRPP accepts donations from both public and private donors – to the extent that these donations do not come with conditions. The Institute invest its own resources in all of its projects and seeks a diversity of donors so that no single source of funding becomes indispensable. The IRPP's endowment fund is overseen by an investment committee and managed by professional investment firms. This committee advises the Board of Directors on investment strategies that aim to maintain the real value of the fund.

The IRPP is incorporated under Part II of the Canada Corporations Act.

Policy Options

Policy Options is the magazine published by the IRPP. First published in 1980, the magazine became a purely digital publication in 2016 and now boasts well over 1 million page-views yearly.

Policy Options features daily articles on issues of public policy by English- and French-language contributors from academia, research institutions, the political world, the public service and the not-for-profit and private sectors. Its goal is to provide a window into some of the discussions that key decision-makers are having or should be having, and to feature a diversity of viewpoints.

Jennifer Ditchburn has served as editor-in-chief of Policy Options since 2016.

Centre of Excellence on the Canadian Federation

The Centre of Excellence on the Canadian Federation was made possible by a $10 million contribution from the Government of Canada announced in Budget 2018 to create this permanent research body within the IRPP with a mission to build a deeper understanding of Canada as a federal community. It was formally launched in September 2020.

The Centre is uniquely positioned to provide insights into key public policy challenges facing the Canadian federation, from post-pandemic provincial policies to fiscal relations, Indigenous governance to public opinion on federalism. Under the leadership of Executive Director Charles Breton, the Centre builds on the IRPP’s status as a recognized authority on the complex issues surrounding the Canadian federation. Its priority is to bring relevant data and knowledge to the fingertips of policy-makers, politicians, and academics when debates on federal arrangements occur.

Annual Reports

Click HERE to view the IRPP Annual Reports.