Our Research
Canadian businesses tend to be leading players in public policy debates, pushing governments to ask hard questions about costs and efficacy....except in K-12 education. The business community is virtually silent on an issue to which governments dedicate more money than any other service save health. This report asks, Why?
Kind folks never needed it, and unkind folks won’t heed it. It’s a project that wanted to draw attention to vulnerabilities, but in so doing, actually isolated people more.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: If we were to assess the new family benefits forthcoming in the March 22 federal budget and offer a grade, we'd give the government a "B". The up side: there will be more money, a simpler benefit structure, and more flexibility for most families. The down side: the benefits may not be sustainable and are structured towards individual poverty reduction rather than a recognition that the family is an important societal institution.
Good decision making depends on good information. Municipal leaders need a reliable way to evaluate progress on goals and aspirations for their communities. The International Organization for Standardization is introducing a new data standard, ISO 37120:2014, to help municipalities measure standards ranging from firefighting capacity to public transit to water quality. But before decision-makers adopt this new data standard, they need know how well it frames sustainability and quality of life.
In an article published in Municipal World, Milton Friesen, Cardus' Director of Social Cities, identifies key questions that can help evaluate the merits and limits of ISO 37120. At the centre of these questions is an understanding that assumptions and values are built into all measures, and that safeguards are needed to account for the unique nature of Canada's cities.
Our current payday loan market is failing consumers and society and government regulations alone cannot solve the current situation. Our new report, Banking on the Margins, aims at reforming Canada's payday loan market. In this report, we call for joint efforts between government, banks, credit unions and charities to provide customers with lower rate loans as an alternative to payday loans.
Cardus reframes the existing work on palliative, hospice, and end-of-life care through the lenses of natural death, social architecture, and the continuum of care. This unique approach not only considers the system by which health care is provided but also places the patients and caregivers at the centre of the discussion, attuning policy to their needs.
This 2016 Pre-Budget Submission to the Ontario Government focuses on two recommendations: building greater capacity for self-directed home care, and developing interoperable electronic health records.
The IMFC is being transitioned to Cardus as part of Cardus' ongoing work and mandate to help inform evidence-based conversations on the changing social architecture in Canada.
An honest look at various aspects of daycare and parenting in a socialist "utopia". The Swedish government prioritizes government daycare by paying for it, while not paying for any other option.
This report was published under IMFC auspices.
Marriage is a source of great societal stability. Unfortunately, marriage is on the decline, common law is on the rise, and lone parenting is also on the rise. The bulk of lone parents remain women. Thankfully, today in Canada, two married parents still remain the norm.
Most international research on income and divorce suggests that women and children suffer more financially from a divorce than men.
This paper summarizes the discussion convened by Cardus and explores the lessons that Ontario can learn about "warming the climate" for educational diversity from across Canada thirty years after Shapiro.
Cardus sets out to reform the payday loan industry.
Julie Dallavis investigates whether religious high schools are associated with gender differences in earning a bachelor's degree and choosing a college major.
David Sikkink and Sara Skiles report on young adult outcomes of students who have been homeschooled using data from the Cardus Education Survey of 2011 and 2014.
Sara Skiles and David Sikkink examine religious school sector outcomes of college degree, field of postsecondary study, and income using data from the National Survey of Youth and Religion (NSYR)
This inaugural Cardus Health report builds on the 2011 parliamentary report "Not to be Forgotten: Care of Vulnerable Canadians." Many recommendations have been published by many organizations since 2011, and this report evaluates these proposals while looking through three lenses.
Canadians often hear about the apparent need for more licensed daycare spaces. But what if the daycare shortage is not so much a shortage of spaces as a shortage of children in them?
This report was published under IMFC auspices.
In this poll commissioned by Cardus, Nanos conducted an RDD dual frame (land- and cell-lines) hybrid telephone and online random survey of 1,000 Canadians between February 22nd and 27th, 2015 as part of an omnibus survey. Questions were themed on Canadians' level of preparedness for making end-of-life health care decisions; confidence in Canada's health care system; and how and by whom end-of-life care questions are addressed. Download the results here.
Trouble downloading? Email us at info@cardus.ca
David Sikkink and Sara Skiles investigate the relationship between religious school attendance and reading outcomes during the early elementary school years.
This report recounts the concerns parents expressed in 2010 and critiques some of the common claims made about sexuality education.
This report was published under IMFC auspices.
A social bias against employment in the skilled trades exists in this country. This culminating document of the Building Meaning project includes the Building Meaning in the Skilled Trades background paper, and our final series of recommendations for industry and labour stakeholders; educational institutions; governments; and researchers.
Download the 500+ slide extended data pack, to review a larger sample of Cardus's findings than could be discussed in the 2014 report.
The 2014 Cardus Education Survey is the second instalment focusing on USA graduates.
The Cardus Education Survey is considered the most significant representative benchmark of non-public school academic, cultural, and spiritual outcomes.
This report explores how Ontario could free anywhere from $188 million to $283 million a year simply by making small changes to the way it procures major public construction projects.
Program director Brian Dijkema and lead author Stephen Bauld introduce the paper and its importance: video (1:30).