In recent years, inadequate social policies in Canada have led to growing inequalities: a housing affordability crisis, dwindling labour forces, and a growing need for care work. With the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, policymakers across Canada found themselves saddled with a new, increasingly urgent issue to attend to – and a host of other social policies to leave on the back burner. Now, approaching three years of the pandemic occupying policymaker agendas, those living in a world of growing social inequalities need neglected social policies to be brought back onto the agenda.
To address these social policies, the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy and Queen’s University have announced the 26th annual International Institute on Social Policy: Next Wave: Challenges and Opportunities for Social Policy in the Coming Decade. The event is organized in part by Professor Ito Peng from the Department of Sociology and the Munk School for Global Affairs. Peng specializes in comparative social policy, gender, immigration, and the care economy – all of which will feature in the three-week duration of the conference.
The conference begins in person on October 31 and will be followed by eight online seminars hosted between November 2 to 18. During the in-person conference, discussions will be led by a roster of experts in public policy, economy, global affairs, and Canadian politics. The online seminars will feature important policy topics such as the labour market, healthcare, housing, and the care economy. Following a yearlong COVID hiatus, this year’s conference aims to foster productive discussion about Canadian social policy, and how it needs to be reformed, or even transformed, to create a more prosperous future for Canadians. To learn more about this event, visit the Munk School’s event page.