Digital Commons Network^™

Adapting To Climate Change: The Case Of Multi-Level Governance And Municipal Adaptation Planning In Nova Scotia, Canada, Brennan A. Vogel

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Nova Scotia is the only province in Canada to use the gas tax as a financial incentive to create a regulatory mandate for ‘Municipal Climate Change Action Plans’ (MCCAPs). The MCCAP adaptation policy mandate initiated and enabled climate change vulnerability assessment and the development of climate risk priorities and adaptation plans to uniformly occur at the local scale in 53 Nova Scotian municipalities. This dissertation seeks to answer the question: What are the social factors that impacted municipal climate change adaptation policy and planning processes in the multi-level governance context of Nova Scotia’s MCCAP?

The study develops and operationalizes a …

Physical Culture As Citizenship Education At Pelican Lake Indian Residential School, 1926-1970, Braden Paora Te Hiwi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Pelican Lake Indian residential school, also known as Sioux Lookout Indian residential school, was an Anglican run institution that was a part of the Canadian residential school system; the school operated from 1926 to 1970. It is well established in the literature that the Department of Indian Affairs intended to evangelize, assimilate, and civilize its students, but the function of citizenship in the residential schools is less well known. The focus of this study was to examine physical culture activities, specifically sport, exercise, and recreation as a form of training for citizenship. In particular, I centered this research on the …

Conceptualizing Response Capacity And Flood Action In The City Of Vancouver And District Of Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada, Jonathan P. Raikes

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Attention to effective local flood response has become a necessity in urban governance as issues pertaining to floods become increasingly visible with disasters rising. This research identifies components of response capacity to floods and municipal action, and potential mechanisms to increase response capacity in the City of Vancouver and District of Maple Ridge using interviews (n=7), Q methodology (n=12), and a literature review. Findings show that legislation, institutional behaviour and collective action, technological pathways and resource management are fundamental to an institution or organization’s response capacity. Municipal action is influenced by competing priorities as determined through legal responsibility and liability, …

Elusive Peace, Security, And Justice In Post-Conflict Guatemala: An Exploration Of Transitional Justice And The International Commission Against Impunity In Guatemala (Cicig), Daniel W. Schloss

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Guatemala has, until today, struggled to achieve security and justice following the end of nearly half a century of civil war in 1996. One specific institution, the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), has been implemented to rectify many of the Guatemalan state’s difficulties in establishing and maintaining the rule of law. In this thesis, I look to better explain CICIG’s role in Guatemala relative to security and justice in a post-conflict setting: I define CICIG as an institution potentially capable of building societal trust, and I explain how the inclusion of procedural justice within transitional justice can help …

Stories Of Youth Politics In Action: Uncovering Youth Political Spaces For Local Governments, Adam Fearnall

MPA Major Research Papers

This paper argues that local governments must create space for expressions of youth politics within formal political processes if they hope to engage young residents in the work of government. It is comprised of a number stories that capture the essence of generalizable lessons about where to find and how to recognize expressions of youth politics. Each one is intended to uncover a different aspect of youth politics and to make a case for why local governments need to learn how to recognize the spaces and languages that define the youth political sphere. The paper concludes with a discussion of …

Sharing The Lived Experience Of Public Housing: A Critical Discourse Analysis And Perspectives From Residents Of Public Housing In London, Ontario, Tim Smuck

MPA Major Research Papers

This paper examines the extent to which media and government discourse about public housing differs from the lived experience of public housing residents. It uses case studies of the two largest and most negatively stereotyped public housing communities in London, Ontario – Limberlost and Southdale – and it argues that there are three distinct discourses surrounding public housing in the city. The first discourse is the media, which was analyzed using a media review of the largest media outlet, the London Free Press; the second discourse is the London and Middlesex Housing Corporation (LMHC), which was investigated using a government …

Public Health Funding: Results Of A Quantitative Analysis Exploring The Influence Of Local Public Health Unit Characteristics On The Provision Of Provincial And Local Funding, Sandy Stevens

MPA Major Research Papers

This paper attempts to identify what local public health unit (PHU) characteristics, if any, may be contributing factors to the variations in provincial and local per capita funding levels between PHUs. Financial data was collected on the size of the grant provided to each health unit by the Province of Ontario and the total expenditures spent by each PHU. This data was analyzed in relation to four health unit characteristics: the governance model of the board of health; the population density of the area overseen by each health unit; the economic health of the local communities; and the workload experienced …

Institutional Collective Action In Ontario’S Fire Service: Conducive And Inhibiting Factors Of Local Collaboration Of Fire Safety Inspections And Enforcement, Brian Arnold

MPA Major Research Papers

The economic, political, and social environment in Ontario is placing increased pressure on the delivery of local fire prevention services and fire chiefs and elected officials are expected to do more with fewer resources. Subsequently, exploring mechanisms to work collaboratively with neighbouring fire departments in order to improve the efficacy of fire prevention programs should be a priority. This paper examines the conducive and inhibiting factors of voluntary collaboration for fire prevention activities within Ontario’s fire service. A cross-sectional study and analysis was undertaken to collect data of relevant variables at a specific point in time using a triangulation approach. …

A Matter Of Size: An Investigation Into How The Size Of Municipality Impacts What It Values In A Municipal Association, Neale Carbert

MPA Major Research Papers

This paper examines whether municipalities of different sizes behave in municipal associations in different ways and, more specifically, it investigates how municipalities in Ontario value and interact with the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO). The data and conclusions presented are based on a series of qualitative interviews with elected officials and city staff of a small municipality and a large municipality that both hold membership in the AMO. The findings reveal that the size of a municipality does in fact affect what it will value in a municipal association. The limited budget and capacity of small municipal governments leads …

The Perfect Storm: Emergency Management Regulations And Small Municipalities In Ontario, Jennifer Alexander

MPA Major Research Papers

This paper examines emergency management legislation in Ontario with a specific focus on identifying the barriers that small municipalities experience with implementing provincial emergency management regulations. Through a qualitative research approach, this study examines three small municipalities in southwestern Ontario – Bluewater, Goderich, and Middlesex Centre – which have a similar population size and geographic location. Interviews with key municipal stakeholders were conducted and their responses are analyzed within this report. The findings demonstrate that small municipalities are struggling to maintain emergency readiness due to a lack of financial capacity to invest in resources and proactive emergency measures.

The Study Of Knowledge And Attitudes Of Students In Chinese Universities Towards Canadian Political And Local Issues, Huiwen Chen

MPA Major Research Papers

This paper provides a specific perspective of Chinese-Canadian relations by studying the knowledge and attitudes of Chinese students towards Canadian political and local issues. The data and conclusions presented are based on 134 questionnaires that analyze the level of knowledge and attitudes the participants had and what factors contributed to this. The findings reveal that the participants had very little knowledge about Canada and fairly negative attitudes towards Canada, compared to other countries such as the United States, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Moreover, certain factors, such as sex, place of birth, and proficiency with English, impacted the level of …

The Social Costs Of Industrial Growth In The Sub-Arctic Regions Of "Canada", Caylee T. Cody

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Colonialism in the land that is now called “Canada” is rooted in the ongoing dispossession of Indigenous people’s way of existing and interacting with the world. The present study identifies that the social costs of industrial growth are part of an ongoing process of colonialism which continues to annex Indigenous lands to feed the capitalist economy and reify the power of the state. Through a comparative analysis of literature written about the Attawapiskat First Nation and the Innu Nation, the study reveals that the financial rewards of industrial growth are few, while the cultural, human, and environmental costs are many. …

Enterprising Outsiders: Livelihood Strategies Of Cape Town’S Forced Migrants, Madeleine Ann Northcote

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Although refugees and registered asylum-seekers have a legal right to work in South Africa, research shows that prevailing anti-immigrant attitudes and South African employers’ suspicion of these migrants’ documents makes employment extraordinarily difficult to acquire. This thesis investigates how, in the face of such challenges, forced migrants in Cape Town secure their day-to-day livelihoods. The research is based on semi-structured, open-ended interviews with thirty-two refugees and other forced migrants who live and operate in the Cape Town area, as well as five key informant interviews with employees of refugee service organizations. It also draws from literature on both South Africa’s …

Ontario College Of Teachers Cases Of Teacher Sexual Misconduct, Taryn Mototsune

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Teacher sexual misconduct in Ontario was examined by using cases reviewed by the Ontario College of Teachers between 2000 and 2013. Despite the impetus by key stakeholders to develop appropriate policies to circumvent teacher-student sexual relationships, this phenomenon is still not well understood. The current study found that around 92 percent of perpetrators are men. The results indicate that male perpetrators who abuse elementary school-aged males are more likely to have multiple victims and longer offending careers. This study found less intrusive sexual behaviour, fewer multiple victim perpetrators, and shorter offending careers in more recent cases. This suggests that the …

Public Service Motivation At A Small Suburban Municipality: An Analysis Of Intrinsic And Extrinsic Motivators And The Characteristics Of Employees Of The Town Of Bradford West Gwillimbury, Tami Kitay

MPA Major Research Papers

This paper determines the motivators of employees who are highly attracted to public sector work. The researcher sought to replicate the 2005 Bright study, which found a strong relationship between public service motivation and the personal characteristics of employees, their employment status, and their intrinsic/extrinsic reward preferences, with the employees of the Town of Bradford West Gwillimbury. The results indicate a strong correlation, but not identical results, to the Bright study, with the common foundation between the two studies being a strong majority of local government employees who are intrinsically connected to and motivated by the public service.

The Silver Bullet To Ontario’S Organ Shortage: The Case For Presumed Consent For Post-Mortem Organ Donations, Taylor Rodrigues

2015 Undergraduate Awards

Over 85% of Ontarians would like their organs to be donated after they die.1 Yet strangely, less than 25% of Ontarians are registered organ donors and Ontario law assumes that unless the deceased registered to be an organ donor prior to their death they did not want their organs to be donated after their death.2 As a result, every year, hundreds of Ontarians die awaiting an organ transplant while thousands of healthy organs from individuals who are in favour of organ donation, but failed to register as organ donors, are disposed of instead of transplanted.3 This situation is tragic, preventable …

Transitioning The Canadian Democratic System Into The Era Of Digital Governance: A Longitudinal Study Of First Time Online Voting And Voter Turnout In Ontario Municipalities, Chris Bantock

MPA Major Research Papers

This paper examines the relationship between online voting and voter turnout rates in Ontario municipalities. It uses a longitudinal research design to collect election data from municipalities that used online voting for the first time in 2014, which is compared to election data from the 2010 Ontario municipal elections, and it also uses a survey that was administered to the Clerks Department of randomly selected municipalities. The findings reveal a statistically proven relationship between online voting and increased voter turnout in Ontario municipalities.