The Next Wave: Challenges & Opportunities for Social Policy

2022 Munk School-Queen’s International Institute on Social Policy

October 31 – November 18, 2022

After a year’s COVID hiatus, Canada’s premiere social policy conference — the International Institute on Social Policy — is back, in a new partnership!

This year the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto and the School of Policy Studies at the Queen’s University will host the 26th annual International Institute on Social Policy: Next Wave: Challenges and Opportunities for Social Policy in the Coming Decade.

For over two years, the COVID-19 pandemic hijacked the policy agenda and necessarily focused attention on responses to the emergency. Meanwhile, new and enduring social, political, and economic challenges have been gathering force. The Munk School and Queen’s University are joining forces to bring together leading international and Canadian experts to consider whether and how we need to reform, or even transform, Canadian social policy for a more resilient and successful future.

• October 31, 2022 in-person: Launch conference at the Munk School on meta challenges and policy choices facing Canada and other OECD countries (registration fee applies). Register for the conference now.
• November 2 to 18, 2022 virtual webinars: Online policy seminars on major areas of social policy most in flux and ripe for rethinking (free registration). 

The Next Wave: Challenges and Opportunities for Social Policy in the Coming Decade

The 2022 International Institute on Social Policy will launch on October 31st with a day-long conference at the Munk School’s Campbell Conference Facility on the meta challenges and policy choices facing Canada and other OECD countries – socio-economic, generational and political. Featured speakers for the conference and policy series include:

• Baroness Minouche Shafik, Director of the London School of Economics and author of What We Owe Each Other: A New Social Contract;
• Peter Loewen, Director, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy
• Kevin Milligan, Professor, Vancouver School of Economics, University of British Columbia (UBC)
• Stefano Scarpetta, Director, Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, OECD
• Catherine Adam; Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic and Service Policy; Employment and Social Development Canada
• Gina Gustavvson, Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor at Department of Government, Uppsala University
• Debra Thompson, Canada Research Chair at McGill University in Racial Inequality in Democratic Societies;
• Richard Johnston, Professor Emeritus, Department of Political Science, UBC
• Keith Banting, Professor Emeritus and Stauffer Dunning Fellow, Department of Political Studies and School of Policy Studies, Queen’s University
• Sean Speer, Editor-at-Large, The Hub; Senior Fellow, Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy
• Carolyn Tuohy, Professor Emeritus and Distinguished Fellow, Department of Political Science and Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy

• Naheed Nenshi, former Mayor of Calgary
• Margaret Biggs, Matthews Fellow in Global Public Policy, Queen’s School of Policy Studies

A curated series of online seminars will follow drilling into major areas of social policy most in flux and ripe for rethinking such as labour markets, income protection, immigration, and mental health. These policy panels will run virtually from November 2 – November 18, 2022.