Research publications

Beyond the strategic, media and political considerations at play in federal party leadership campaigns, there are constitutional conventions and rules, often less well known, governing the departure of leaders and their replacement in the Senate or the House of Commons. This HillNote describes the conventions and rules that apply in the event of resignation, death, incapacity, or dismissal of parliamentary leaders, as well as during the resulting transfer of responsibilities.

For the Government of Canada, poverty is broadly defined as “the condition of a person who is deprived of the resources, means, choices and power necessary to acquire and maintain a basic level of living standards and to facilitate integration and participation in society.” In 2018, the federal government launched a poverty reduction strategy, aiming to halve the national poverty rate by 2030, relative to its 2015 level. This HillNote summarizes the federal role in poverty reduction, outlines the main features of Canada’s poverty reduction strategy and analyzes the evolution of poverty rates in Canada since 2002.

A general election is followed by the opening of a new session of the Parliament of Canada, marking the beginning of a new parliamentary cycle. This HillNote provides an overview of the parliamentary ceremonies and procedures involved in the opening of a new Parliament, including those that occur prior to and following the Speech from the Throne.

Canada’s immigration detention system is governed by the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (the Regulations) and the international human rights treaties ratified by the government. The Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) is responsible for managing the detention process of foreign nationals and permanent residents, while the Immigration Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada reviews immigration detention decisions.

In today’s complex world, the blurred lines between domestic and foreign policy regularly draw Canadian parliamentarians onto the world stage. Increasingly, they speak directly with their international counterparts on issues of global and national importance. In Canada, diplomatic engagement has been a long-standing dimension of parliamentary activities, generally with three goals in mind: exchanging ideas and best practices; helping to inform collective policy and action; and promoting democratic values and Canadian interests abroad.

In 2022, approximately 8 million Canadians aged 15 years or older reported living with disabilities that limit their daily activities. As individual groups, women, seniors and Indigenous peoples report some of the highest rates of disability. Therefore, the legislation and policies that aim to support various people who live with disabilities have an impact on many Canadians from coast to coast to coast.

Today, artificial intelligence (AI) is everywhere and can be found in search engines, connected cars, smartphones and chatbots such as ChatGPT. An AI system poses privacy risks throughout its lifecycle. These risks occur right from the initial collection of the data that trains the AI model driving the system. Once on the market, some powerful AI systems can pose additional privacy risks. For example, they can aggregate unrelated personal information to create new insights about a person that the person has not disclosed themselves. AI systems can also distort sensitive biometric information, such as a voice or a face, to create deepfakes, which may fuel the growth of online misinformation and disinformation.

Potash refers to a group of minerals and chemicals that contain potassium. Potash is used in fertilizers to help plants grow, increase crop yield and enhance disease resistance. Potash production in Canada has a long history, with the first exports recorded in 1767. Today, Canada is the biggest producer of potash in the world, representing 32% of global production volume in 2023. In early 2025, Canadian potash exports became an important issue in the changing trade relationship between Canada and the United States.

This HillNote is the first in a series of four publications about productivity. The second in the series presents Canada’s productivity performance compared to other advanced economies. The third analyzes the main potential causes of Canada’s relatively low productivity growth, and the fourth analyzes the principal potential solutions. This first of the series provides successive definitions of the concepts of productivity, labor productivity, and total factor productivity (TFP). Next, it explores the relationship between gross domestic product per capita, labour productivity, and TFP. Finally, it answers the question: why does productivity matter?

Given the growing frequency and intensity of severe weather events around the world, like hurricanes, wildfires, floods and violent storms, households have had to make increasingly costly home insurance claims. Canada has not been spared; it even saw a record year for damages in 2024, caused particularly by flooding in Quebec and Ontario, and by wildfires and a hailstorm in Alberta. Consequently, insurers in Canada and abroad have raised premiums, tightened underwriting standards or withdrawn from high-risk areas. This has led to rising costs for home insurance that has become less accessible – especially for households living in areas prone to such disasters – and rising uninsured losses.