The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) is an independent

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. It has been described as "left leaning". The CCPA concentrates on economic policy, international trade,

environmental justice Environmental justice is a social movement to address the unfair exposure of poor and marginalized communities to harms from hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses.Schlosberg, David. (2007) ''Defining Environmental Justic ...

and social policy. It is especially known for publishing an alternative federal budget on an annual basis. The centre is based in Ottawa but has branch offices in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749, ...

, Regina,

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

and Halifax. It is funded primarily through individual donations, research grants, and trade unions.

History

The CCPA was founded in Ottawa in 1980 by a group of university professors and union activists. Many of the those first involved with the CCPA’s founding wanted to use it to counter the neoliberal consensus that was emerging during this period. Following its formation, the centre began organizing conferences, publishing pamphlets, and producing booklets and reports created by volunteer researchers. The organization ran into financial difficulties in the late 1980s due to inadequate funding. However, it was able to successfully lobby trade unions and other

NGOs A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in ...

in the early 1990s to take out memberships. In 1994, the centre's capacities expanded further when it increased membership outreach to individual donors. It then went on to set up provincial offices across the country. By 2002, it had established offices in

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Winn ...

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

, and

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dak ...

Projects and initiatives

Alternative federal budget

In 1995, the CCPA published its first alternative federal budget (AFB) with the Winnipeg-based CHO!CES. The AFB has since become the centre’s signature initiative. The AFB is a collaborative project that includes inputs from various civil society groups from across the country. It typically contains about 20 chapters that are each written by field experts and reviewed in consultation with other researchers and advocates.

''The Monitor''

In 1994, the CCPA launched ''The Monitor'', which continues to serve as the organization’s regularly-published flagship magazine that complies analyses conducted by their researchers and affiliates.

Canada Revenue Agency political audit of CCPA

In 2012, the

Canada Revenue Agency The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA; ; ) is the revenue service of the Canadian federal government, and most provincial and territorial governments. The CRA collects taxes, administers tax law and policy, and delivers benefit programs and tax cre ...

launched a $13.4-million program through which it undertook a political audit of 52 charities, including the CCPA, "to determine whether any ereviolating a rule that limits their spending on political activities to 10 per cent of resources". In 2014, the CRA claimed on its website that the CCPA appeared to be "biased" and "one-sided." In an open letter, 400 academics called for a moratorium on the CCPA audit, claiming that this is an attempt by the Conservative Party of Canada government to "intimidate, muzzle and silence its critics". Canada's most prominent market-oriented think tanks, the C. D. Howe Institute and the Macdonald–Laurier Institute, were not audited.

Citations

References

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External links

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''The Monitor''
– bimonthly CCPA publication
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives – Canadian Political Parties and Political Interest Groups
– Web Archive created by the University of Toronto Libraries

{{Authority control Political and economic think tanks based in Canada 1980 establishments in Ontario Think tanks established in 1980 Organizations based in Ottawa