PLCY 812 - SELECTED TOPICS IN PUBLIC POLICY

Regulation is part of a core policy framework to help governments achieve societal and government goals, affecting people, property, and businesses. Areas of regulation encompass most societal objectives such as health and safety, human development, sustainability, economic activities, and more. After covering the theoretical foundations underlying regulation and regulatory frameworks, the main objective of the course is to examine and assess the practice of regulatory policy in Canada and how it relates to business and civil society.

*Focus varies: recent topics have included economic inequality, climate policy, child and family policy, and human rights

Learning objectives include:

•  Demonstrating familiarity with regulatory principles and theoretical foundations of regulation and applying those principles to current policy problems
•  Understanding the tradeoffs in regulatory practice, degree of regulation
•  Appreciating the challenges facing regulators including appropriate engagement, compliance assurance
•  Describing the components of ‘excellent’ regulation
•  Describing and using risk-based regulatory principles in application to policy problems

Class sessions combine lectures, guest speakers, discussion, presentations, and interactive work.

Evaluation will be in the form of a major group project, simulated regulatory stakeholder engagement exercise, and in class work.