• Written by IPAC
• Tagged as National Student Paper Competition

Top 5 Videos from the Fourth Annual Blueprint 2020 National Student Paper Competition

The finalists (Top 5) and Grand Prize Winner(s) are selected through a formal adjudication process by a series of judges panels comprised of academics and public servants.

This year, the Top 5 participate in a public voting contest to decide the Public Choice Award Winner. In addition to writing their papers, they were asked to prepare short videos and the public is invited to vote for their favourite. The author(s) of the paper with the most votes win(s) the Public Choice Award.

Implementing Change: A Transformational Leadership Framework Applied to the Canadian Public Service
Robin Barcham

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Executive Summary
Applied to the Canadian public service for the first time, this paper explores a new transformational leadership framework that makes connections between the government context, the behaviours and actions of transformational leaders, and how these play out and affect the attitudes and beliefs of employees.  This paper argues that a transformational leadership framework is relevant to the Canadian public service as a strategy to implement change and identifies considerations and recommendations for future initiatives.

Offering a Warmer, Wiser Welcome: Recommendations for Reforming Canada’s Immigration Loan Program
Hope Caldi

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Introduction
The Immigration Loan Program (ILP) provides loans that are mainly issued overseas to foreign nationals and their beneficiaries (dependents) who have demonstrated need across a variety of eligibility criteria, to cover costs associated with relocating to Canada. The ILP is administered by the federal department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and was launched in 1951.  Since 1995, recipients have had to pay interest on the loans,  making Canada the only country to charge interest on loans issued to its refugees, who constitute the majority of loan recipients.  The objective of the ILP is, “to ensure that some persons, otherwise unable to pay for the costs of transportation to Canada and medical admissibility exams, have access to a funding source”.  While the take-up rates suggest the ILP achieves this objective, the key issue is that some recipients of Immigration Loan Program are vulnerable and face difficulties in repaying their loans and accrued interest, which acts as a significant barrier to their successful settlement and integration in Canada. This essay outlines key issues facing refugees who are ILP loan recipients, provides an overview of potential options to address this issue, and concludes with a recommendation.

Leveraging Existing Federal Frameworks to Improve ATIP Performance
Sarah Evershed and Sadie Harrison

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Summary
This briefing note discusses practical enhancements to the federal government’s ATIP processes using existing processes.
Federal ATIP performance has been lagging globally and nationally.  There is a poor track record amongst departments.
 We recommend including ATIP as a MAF pillar, including ATIP performance in DPRs, incentivizing ATIP success through executive at risk pay and increasing ATIP training in departments.



Getting to Empathy: Fostering Innovation and End-User Focus in the Canadian Public Service
Danny Holmes and Brandon Krauthaker

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Summary
The Canadian Public Service is hampered by a risk-averse culture, and a lack of a human-centric focus.
Empathy mapping provides a proven approach to spur innovation in the Public Service by providing sophisticated end-user behavioural insight to better understand and tailor policy solutions to the needs of citizens.
The public service should develop an empathy mapping exercise toolkit for managers, trialled in the PCO’s Innovation Hub, that will provide training to managers to practically and effectively utilize this technique.
The trial period should highlight the benefits of the approach, making buy-in from potential dissenters more likely, and providing the potential for meaningful citizen engagement in the policy process.

Measuring the Impact of Recreational Marijuana: Potential Approaches and the Facilitation of Government Goals
Logan Stewart

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Summary
To address Canadians concern with the legalization of recreational marijuana Government needs to measure the success, or not, of this policy.
The public should be engaged in helping to determine, and understand, how to measure success in achieving the following 3 legalization goals.
Measurement of achievement of these 3 goals, should be a point of focus of the Government’s response to the Task Force Report on Legalizing Marijuana.
Options for measurement are presented to start a public measurement consultation.