Home › Policy Organizations: Research Institutes: Regional & Sectoral

The Atlantic Institute for Market Studies provides a distinctive Atlantic Canadian voice on public policy. The goal of AIMS is to help people understand how governments operate and make decisions, and how to build a better economy.

The C.D. Howe Institute is a social policy research organization that examines issues of national interest. Its research covers a broad range of social and economic policy issues.

The Canada West Foundation is dedicated to introducing Western perspectives into current Canadian policy debates. It encourages citizen engagement on current policy issues.

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives promotes its policies as alternatives to the message that citizens have no choice about the policies that affect their lives. The organization's publications focus on the economy and social justice.

The Canadian Institute for Advance Research provides funding for researchers studying issues in the sciences and social sciences. It also participates in facilitating this research vis-à-vis the public and private sectors.

The mandate of the Canadian Institute for Research on Regional Development is to promote informed public debate on issues concerning regional development, and to disseminate objective analyses and information on the subject.

The Council of Canadians is a citizens’ watchdog organization with over 100,000 members. It has established itself as a voice for Canadian economic sovereignty, and coordinates lobbying activities accordingly.

The mission of the Frontier Centre is to develop and popularize policy choices that will help Canada’s Prairie region to live up to its vast but unrealized economic potential.

GPI Atlantic is dedicated to the development of the Genuine Progress Index, a measure of sustainability, well-being, and quality of life.

The Institute for Research on Public Policy has a mission to advance new ideas that will help Canadians make more effective policy choices. Its main publication is Policy Options, which covers a broad range of issues.

PARL-L was founded in 1995 as an e-mail list by the former Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women (CACSW).

The Parkland Institute uses a political economy perspective to study public policy issues affecting Albertans and Canadians. Its mission is to examine market-oriented assumptions to determine their effectiveness.

The Polaris Institute was established in response to rising opposition to the two major free trade agreements that dramatically restructured the economy and society in Canada in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The Public Policy Forum provides a neutral venue where the private sector and public sector can meet to learn from one another. It includes business, labour, think tanks, academia, the media, and governments.

The Saskatchewan Institute of Public Policy (SIPP) undertakes research on issues that arise from challenging policy dilemmas through its main activities of research, education and citizenship involvement.

The Asia Pacific Foundation focuses on Canada’s economic, social, political, and institutional relations with Asia. The Research and Analysis group is the core of the Foundation’s activities.

The objective of the Atlantic Provinces Economic Council (APEC) is to promote economic development in the Atlantic Regions. To this end, the organization undertakes research and policy analysis on economic issues pertaining to Atlantic Canada.

The Canadian Centre for International Studies and Cooperation (CECI) is a private, not-for-profit corporation, with its Head Office in east-end Montreal.

The Centre for Trade Policy and Law has a mandate of promoting greater public understanding of trade issues. It provides training, research and advisory services to over 20 countries around the world.

The mandate of the David Suzuki Foundation is to find ways for society to live in balance with the natural world that sustains us. It employs science and education to promote environmental conservation solutions.

he Prairie Policy Institute, an independent non-profit organization created in 2001, is dedicated to making a significant contribution to the economic and social well-being of the Prairie region.

Established in 1947, the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) was created to promote the development of the provinces in the physical sciences.

Established since 2002, Unisféra International Centre (Unisféra) operates as an independent not-for-profit research centre based in Montreal.