SCIENCE ADVICE IN ENVIRONMENTAL POLICYMAKING: AN EXAMINATION OF INSTITUTIONAL BARRIERS IN THE CANADIAN FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

Evident in many Canadian federal government and international publications is the recognition of the underlying importance that scientific knowledge has in evidence-based policymaking. Despite this recognition, academic and empirical research suggests that there are a number of barriers preventing the utilization of science in policy. This thesis examines such barriers in the context of environmental policymaking in the Canadian federal government. It uses a collection of multidisciplinary literature, Canadian federal government documents and interviews with officials from the Canadian federal departments of Natural Resources Canada, Environment Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Health Canada, to then make generalizations about the organizational barriers affecting the federal government at large. The main conclusion will show that while the barriers pertaining to Knowledge Producers and the Representation of Knowledge are important, the main barriers preventing the use of environmental knowledge in policy are with respect to Science-Policy Linkages. For example, departments have made major strides to improving the communication channels between science and policy domains, either through specific councils, boards, or even the creation of new branches and sectors of certain departments. These findings suggest a key implication: to overcome the most prevalent barriers, and the barriers that arguably are most significant, considerable focus must be placed on improving the science-policy interface. This will likely require clear leadership from federal directives in addition to context-specific departmental initiatives.

Name thesis:degree_name

MA

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Political Science

Year dc:date.issued

2010

Author dc:creator

• Popovich, Christopher J.

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Harmes, Adam
• McBean, Gordon

• science
• policy
• policymaking
• science-policy
• evidence-based
• environment
• Canada
• barrier
• knowledge utilization
• knowledge
• utilization

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14721/19845

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uwo.scholaris.ca:20.500.14721/19845