Canadian government policy innovation labs: An experimental turn in policy work?

Governments across the globe are searching for new methods to apply to policy work. New Public Governance (NPG) suggests the state's policy process has become more accessible to a broader range of policy actors including non-state ones. Policy innovation labs speak to this turn to broadening inputs and to methodological experimentation. The focus of this article is to provide an overview of Canadian government policy innovation labs (GPILs) operating in this relatively new space. Despite the ascent of GPILs, they remain, especially in the Canadian context, much understudied. Exploring a select number of Canadian government policy labs operating at the federal, provincial and municipal levels, we provide some insights into their work.

Automated summary

New Public Governance suggests a more open policy process with broader participation. Policy innovation labs demonstrate this openness and conduct methodological experiments. Canadian government policy innovation labs operate in a new field but remain understudied.