University of Alberta Edmonton, Canada 10 January 1997

CD Howe Institute, Fraser Institute and now...the Parkland Institute

New Institute established to broaden debate on public policy issues

Canada's established think tanks have been at the centre of public policy debates, particularly during the last decade. The CD Howe Institute and the Fraser Institute, for example, have played an enormous role in shaping those debates. Canadians have listened, and so have the country's politicians and public servants.

But not everyone in Canada is singing the praises of those Institutes. In fact, some Canadians are critical of the policy options put forward by those decidedly right-of-centre think tanks, and have questioned why the debates among Canadians have been so narrowly defined. A group of Albertans - many of them University of Alberta academics - wants to change that.

"We think there's been a one-sided view of the economy and society dominating the public debate," says Sociology professor Gordon Laxer, one of the co-founders and director of the Parkland Institute, a new Alberta-based think tank established recently to counterbalance the prevailing view of the future.

The new Institute has funding of $16,000 per year for three years from the Faculty of Arts, some in-kind support and has received donations from individuals and organizations to help the Institute get on its feet. And it has established an interim board of directors to chart the Institute's course. A researcher has been hired, members are being sought and a home has been found for the fledgling Institute in a Garneau house.

The Institute is really a research network throughout Alberta, explains Dr Laxer, and its researchers will study issues of public policy focusing primarily on Alberta and, to some extent, more broadly on Canada. Some topics have already been earmarked for study: the minimum wage in the province; the Swan Hills waste treatment plant; the future of Edmonton Power; privatized child care in Alberta; spending on public education; and, welfare rates in the province. The Institute will issue research reports, much the same as other think tanks do. Those will be written for general, not specialized, audiences.

There's been a radical shift in public policy, says Dr Laxer, and, therefore, the period cries out for study. Discussions about the debt and deficit have dominated public debates. However, researchers associated with the Parkland Institute want to combat that one-sided view of the economy and society, says Dr Laxer. "We think economic growth is a means and that human development is the ends. We think it's unhealthy to have only one view. A thriving, democratic society needs debate and a clash of ideas. The idea is to chose what your future will be," he says, pointing out that during the '70s people believed in the inevitability of creeping socialism. Today, people believe in the inevitability of freer markets and a deregulated environment.

Plans are also underway for the Institute to apply for a major collaborative research grant.

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