Post Tagged with: "consultation"

free consultation by russell davies (CC BY-NC 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/4jxLPq

Too Much of a Good Thing: What Lies Behind Canada’s Emerging Consultation Crisis

After years of often feeling excluded from the policy making and legislative process, many civil society groups were excited by the prospect of a new government committed to public consultations and feedback. The Liberal government moved quickly to consult on all manner of issues, providing hope that an emphasis on participatory democracy would lead to better policies and an opportunity to incorporate a broader range of perspectives.

My op-ed in today’s Hill Times notes that two years into the Liberal mandate, the consultative process is now a well-established part of how policy is developed. It is nice to be asked for your opinion, but Canada is increasingly facing a consultation crisis as the sheer volume of hearings, notices, and consultations can be overwhelming.

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October 25, 2017 4 comments Columns
TPP Signing, February 4th, 2016 by US Embassy (CC BY-ND 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/DEVEhT

Canadian TPP Consultation Launches As U.S. Certification Looms in the Distance

The Trans Pacific Partnership, a massive trade deal that covers 40 per cent of the world’s GDP, has mushroomed into a political hot potato in the United States. Presidential candidates Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and Bernie Sanders are all expressing either opposition or concern with the agreement. With the deal in doubt in the U.S., the Canadian government is using the uncertainty to jump start a much-anticipated and long-overdue public consultation.

My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes that earlier this month, the Standing Committee on International Trade announced plans for hearings to be held across the country and invited all Canadians to provide written submissions by the end of the April. When added to the open call for comments from Global Affairs Canada, the government department that negotiated the TPP, the public has an important opportunity to have its voice heard on a trade deal that could impact virtually every aspect of the Canadian economy.

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March 24, 2016 4 comments Columns
Speak up, make your voice heard by Howard Lake (CC BY-SA 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/9rAjnQ http://www.emergencydentistsusa.com/cost/

The Trouble with the TPP: Canadians Get Their Chance To Speak Out

Yesterday I concluded my 50-day series on the Trouble with the TPP which examined the intellectual property and digital policy issues raised by the agreement. In addition to the posts on this blog, I’ve created some additional ways to work through the various posts including a Medium summary and Storify version with links to all 50 posts.

 

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March 15, 2016 6 comments News
Reunión-almuerzo con Líderes de APEC que forman parte del TPP by Gobierno de Chile (CC BY 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/Bc8mWf

The Trouble With the TPP, Day 23: On Signing Day, What Comes Next?

Later today, the 12 countries that make up the Trans Pacific Partnership, a massive global trade deal that includes Canada, the United States, and Japan, will gather in New Zealand to formally sign the agreement (the official signing day is February 4th, but with time zone differences, the signing ceremony starts at 5:30 pm ET on the 3rd). Signing the TPP is a major step forward for the controversial treaty, but questions still abound over whether it will be ratified and take effect. The Trouble with the TPP series, which I initially planned to wrap up today having examined issues ranging from copyright term extension to the weak cultural exception, takes a one-day break from substantive concerns to focus on the future. However, given that there are still some important issues to be considered, the series will continue well into this month.

While the Liberal government has been cautious about expressing its support – International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland has been consistent in calling for consultation not conclusions – the decision to sign the TPP was never much in doubt. The agreement contains incentives to be an “original signatory”, since only those countries qualify for the rules related to entry into force of the agreement. To stay on the sidelines at this early stage might have kept Canada out of the TPP for good.

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February 3, 2016 7 comments Columns

CRTC Faces Charges of Bias in Online Video Consultation

Appeared in the Toronto Star on June 26, 2011 as CRTC Faces Charges of Bias in Online Video Consultation Earlier this month Konrad von Finckenstein, the chair of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, was asked at an industry conference about the role of consumer groups in telecom regulation. He […]

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June 29, 2011 Comments are Disabled Columns Archive