Regulatory Case Studies
As part of its dedication to excellence in public administration teaching, the Insititute of Public Administration of Canada has developed its Case Studies Programme, allowing teachers to give their students a hands-on experience of issues confronting the public servant. Below is a selection from our larger case study programme that will be of particular relevance to those teaching and studying in the field of regulation.
To order any of the cases studies listed below, please click here. (They are listed in alphabetical order by title.)
For more information on the IPAC Case Studies Programme, please click here.
IPAC Case Study 1.4, “Collaboration and Conflict in Public Decision-Making: The Case of Ottawa’s Rideau Area Project – Part I By Walter Baker and Geoffrey Baker
This is a study of a decision process involving three levels of government and several major actors from the private sector. It illustrates the complex, diffused power nature of non-jurisdictional decisions. (See Project Management and the Policy Decision Process: The Case of Ottawa’s Rideau Area Project, Part II.)
IPAC Case Study 1.12, ”When the Smog Clears”, By Kristi Restivo
A member of the minister of labour's staff must develop solutions to address the shortage of provincial building and fire inspectors. Based upon a submission, at the provincial level, to the IPAC Award for Innovative Management.
IPAC Case Study 1.26, "Dealing with Concerned Citizens” By David Siegel
Dealing with interest groups is becoming a standard part of many public servants' duties. The members of the Glenwood Ratepayers Association are concerned because they feel that the local landfill site is leaking onto their properties. They organize themselves into an interest group and appeal to City Hall to solve the problem. This case is a simulation of the negotiating process, which ensues.
IPAC Case Study 1.41, “The Grain Dust” By Bruce Doern and John Kowalski
The case is concerned with the regulation of occupational health, with particular reference to the problem of grain dust in Western Canada. The case can be utilized as a case in policy analysis, in administrative-regulatory practice or in government-industry relations, depending on which of the several suggested assignments is used.
IPAC Case Study 1.60, “Managing the Magpie Forest”, By Sharon B. Robbins
This case outlines the highly emotional conflicts between resource users in a District of a Provincial Ministry of Natural Resources. The two components of the case illustrate the application of "partnership" for conflict resolution as well as its implications for public sector management. The case is based upon an award-winning innovative management project.
IPAC Case Study 1.74, "The Political Stink over Ripe Cheese” By Stephen Brooks
This case involves a fictionalized account of the controversy generated by Ottawa’s 1996 proposal to ban the sale of all unpasteurized milk products.
IPAC Case Study 1.83, “Regulating Airlines” By Peter Clancy
This simulation allows students to come to grips directly with the issues of regulation and de-regulation in a concrete policy setting. It is particularly designed for use in large classes of up to 70-80 students, and maybe mounted in a full-year or half-term format.
IPAC Case Study 1.92, Screening Boat People” By Peter Owen, Peggy Purvis and Raisa B. Deber
This case deals with the decision about whether or not to screen incoming boat people for hepatitis B. It deals with the factors affecting decision-making, especially the relative roles of expert opinion, public opinion, and media coverage. The case is also an example of the difficulty of policy co-ordination between levels of government. The nature of risk assessment," the structure of immigration policy, and the substantive difficulties of devising public health policy could also be addressed through this case.
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IPAC Case Study 1.94, Special Cabinet Meeting to Discuss “The Turbot Wars” By Antonio Lopes
Focuses on Canada’s bottom-line demand for tough conservation on fishing and the enforcement of international law standards and fishing conventions. Provides students with basic tools and techniques to develop practical guidelines for managing crisis.
IPAC Case Study 1.101, ”The Toronto Airport” By Sandford F. Borins
A case designed to develop important skills for policy advisors and policy analysts. The student is required to read conflicting evidence pro and con the Pickering Airport, ascertain why the evidence conflicts, and exercise his own judgement in determining which argument he believes. The Sequel and Case B gives the student a memorandum to Cabinet by the Ministry of Transport presenting only one alternative.
IPAC Case Study 1.102, ”Transport Troubles” By Kristi Restivo
A consultant to the minister of transportation must come up with recommendations to help the department become functional and to address all the problems in the present system. Material for the case was drawn from a submission by a provincial ministry of transport to the IPAC Innovative Management Award in 1991.
IPAC Case Study 1.103, ”The Trout Lake Dump Dilemma” By Sharon B. Robbins
.This case outlines the difficulties faced by the public sector in satisfying a public need for environmentally friendly waste disposal facilities during a period of fiscal restraint. The use of' partnership' as a means of increasing public participation in decision-making and conflict resolution is illustrated. The case is based on an award-winning innovative management project.
IPAC Case Study 1.113, Downtown Development or Regional Mall: Fredericton Makes a Decision, (disponible en français) by M. C. Ircha
To provide students of urban government and administration, in particular planning, with a realistic example of the political decision-making process in a municipal system.
IPAC Case Study 3.03, "Denormalizing Tobacco" By Anne M Lavack
This case study focuses on one of the many policy instruments the Canadian federal government has considered adopting and implementing. The case discusses tobacco industry denormalization, an approach that Health Canada has been urged by antismoking groups to adopt, which is intended to educate the public about the tobacco industry's role in manipulating and addicting smokers.
IPAC Case Study 3.10, "The Fisheries Crisis: A Simulation” By Peter P. Constantinou
The flow of information in any organization is critical to its success and government is no exception. The flow of information is particularly important in times of crisis or in preparation for responding to questions, criticisms or allegations either from the public, the media or from the Opposition parties in Question Period. This simulation is an attempt to replicate the environment under which this process occurs.
IPAC Case Study 3.14, “The Lake Simcoe Environmental Management Strategy” By Fred M. Johnson and Jane Sirois
Provides a scenario of a longstanding environmental problem universally acknowledged as harmful socially and economically; and allows for discussion of how to apply provincial policy to a complex land use and issue management scenario.
To order any of the cases studies listed below, please click here. (They are listed in alphabetical order by title.)
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