Research publications

Over the last 30 years, the governments of various Western democracies have made significant changes in their approach to managing prostitution. However, little consensus exists on the most appropriate legislative response. In various countries, attempts to adopt a new legislative approach (whether to enact or repeal criminal penalties) have sparked fierce controversy. Though the similarities between these legislative approaches are not always immediately apparent, all of them express the aims of both protecting the health and safety of sex workers, and preventing their exploitation by pimps or clients. This paper reviews the key legislative approaches to prostitution in a number of Western jurisdictions (Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom and the United States). In particular, it examines the specific laws and/or regulations these countries and states have instituted, and it discusses how they appear to have fared in meeting their objectives.

After each decennial census, Canada’s House of Commons readjusts both the number of members who represent each province and the boundaries of every provincial electoral district. For their part, Canada’s three territories are assigned one seat each in the House under the Constitution Act, 1867 and are consequently excluded from the readjustment process. The chief electoral officer (CEO) is responsible for calculating the number of members of the House allotted to each province; given that this calculation is mathematical, the CEO cannot exercise any discretion in the matter. The work of readjusting electoral boundaries is carried out in each province by an independent and neutral three-member electoral boundaries commission. This paper describes the formula used for determining how seats are allotted to each province and the work conducted by the commissions to readjust and name each provincial electoral district.

Canadian electoral law has grown in complexity and it continues to evolve. The administration of elections was haphazard and highly politicized in the early years after Confederation. Since then, two fundamental changes have been made to the Canadian electoral process. First is the creation of a non-partisan electoral system governed by very specific procedures and overseen by an independent election agency. Second, and more recently, is the regulation of political party campaigning, particularly its financial aspects. This paper provides an overview of the nature and functioning of the Canadian federal electoral system in a question-and-answer format. Since Canada isa federal state, each province has its own system for elections to its legislature, and the federal and provincial electoral processes are independent of each other.

The federal government collects revenues and makes expenditures in all provinces. Per capita federal revenues and spending vary from province to province, depending on the economic and demographic conditions in each province. Sources of federal revenues include personal and corporate income tax, the goods and services tax and social insurance contributions. Federal spending encompasses transfers to persons (through the Canada Pension Plan and employment insurance, for example), transfers to provinces (through programs like Equalization and the Canada Health Transfer), as well as federal spending on goods and services to support government operations. This HillStudy examines the distribution of federal revenues and expenditures from 2011 to 2020 by province; data on Canadian territories are excluded from this publication for reasons of scale. The paper concludes that federal expenditures have a clear redistributive effect by transferring resources from more affluent to less affluent Canadians, regardless of province of residence.

This paper provides an overview of Canada’s business insolvency framework, as well as recent amendments and proposed changes to legislation. It also examines long-term and short-term trends in the number of business insolvency filings, with a focus on developments since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A healthy environment is essential to human life, health and well-being. Climate change is increasingly impacting the environment in ways that harm people. Climate change affects the air we breathe, the availability of food and water, and the rate and intensity of extreme weather events, such as floods, droughts and storms that have great potential to cause harm to human populations. There is a growing international consensus that efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change are ultimately necessary to protect and advance basic human rights, including the right to life. The right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment has emerged as another way of recognizing that humans require a healthy environment for their survival and for the realization of all other human rights.

With the majority of grains produced in Western Canada intended for export, the grain trade relies on a complex supply chain in which rail transportation is the cornerstone. This document provides an overview of grain handling in Western Canada, its legislative framework, as well as emerging issues and challenges the grain transportation system faces.

The Canadian economy has been facing a continuous decline in productivity growth over the past four decades. The aim of this publication is to explain what productivity growth is and why it matters for improving Canada’s average standard of living. It explores the importance of “new ideas” – a concept coined by the Nobel Laureate Paul M. Romer – in determining Canada’s long-term productivity growth and emphasizes that the long-term growth of an advanced economy like Canada depends largely on the extent to which new ideas are generated and those ideas become innovations that increase productivity. The basic insight emerging from the economic literature is that the long-run growth rate of an advanced economy is primarily the product of the number of researchers, entrepreneurs and scientists and their respective productivity.

Although domestic police, prosecutors and courts must operate within the confines of their territorial jurisdiction, criminal behaviour knows no borders. As such, states have developed legal tools to deal with cases in which one or more elements of a crime – such as location, the accused, evidence or proceeds – are located in another country. The tools for recognizing and enforcing international aspects of national criminal law include the exercise of extraterritorial jurisdiction and various mechanisms for interstate cooperation in criminal matters, such as extradition, mutual legal assistance, seizure (including the forfeiture of criminal proceeds) and most recently, direct access to electronic data.