Research

Rigorous analysis of how Canada taxes and supports its people

Our research spans tax policy design, income security, municipal finance, and the distributional impacts of fiscal policy — studied not in isolation, but as the interconnected system they actually are.

Our Approach

Transdisciplinary research built to last

Our research harnesses the strengths of economics, law, public administration, and intersectionality to study public policy problems that resist single-discipline answers. We work across federal, provincial, and municipal levels because that is how policy actually operates — and because the interactions between levels of government are where many of the most consequential gaps and inequities are found.

We publish in peer-reviewed academic journals, produce technical reports for governments and expert panels, and write accessible policy analysis for practitioners and the public. Our research is held to academic standards regardless of the outlet, and we do not adjust findings to fit a funder's preferred conclusion.

We organize our work around two interconnected research streams — FACT and ENABLE — that together form the analytical core of the INCLUSIECON initiative.

FACT
Fair and Accountable Canadian Taxation
How governments raise resources fairly, efficiently, and transparently. Examines tax design and implementation at all levels of government — personal income tax, property tax, user levies, and the distributional effects of the tax mix.
Property Tax Equity Municipal Finance Tax Design MVPF Underground Economy Fiscal Federalism
ENABLE
Equity in Needs-Based Assistance for Better Lives and Engagement
How governments redistribute resources to reduce poverty and promote economic inclusion. Examines income support design and delivery, benefit adequacy, disability policy, program interactions, and the lived experience of the people policies are meant to serve.
Cash Transfer Design Basic Income Disability Policy Material Deprivation System Mapping GBA+
Selected Work

Publications, reports & commentary

SOCIAL INVESTMENT
ENABLE Commentary 2026
From Cost to Investment: Reframing Social Spending in an Affordability Era
Gillian Petit and Selvia Arshad
IRPP — Institute for Research on Public Policy
Affordability pressures in Canada remain elevated — food insecurity at record highs, housing costs outpacing incomes, and nearly half of Canadians struggling to cover day-to-day expenses. This commentary argues that the framing of social spending as a fiscal burden gets the economics backwards. Reframing transfers and supports as social investment — and measuring them accordingly — is both analytically more honest and politically more tractable.
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BASIC INCOME
ENABLE Flagship Project 2017–2024
Basic Income & A More Just Society
Lindsay M. Tedds and Gillian Petit, with Green, Kesselman, Cameron, Perrin & others
BC Expert Panel · Government of Nunavut · IRPP · Canadian Public Policy
A decade of foundational work examining whether basic income is the right tool for reforming Canada's social safety net — from the BC Basic Income Expert Panel and a landmark IRPP book to microsimulations for Nunavut. Includes 1 book, 3 journal articles, 8 reports, and 4 policy & media outputs.
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Structure Components Evaluation
ENABLE Journal Article 2026
Income and Social Supports: An Inclusive Systems-Based Framework for Cash Transfer Design
Lindsay M. Tedds and Gillian Petit
Canadian Public Administration · doi:10.1111/capa.70050
A new framework for inclusive cash transfer design integrating policy design, empirical economics, and systems thinking — moving beyond technocratic optimization to centre intersectionality, lived experience, and the structural conditions that make programs work or fail for the people they are meant to serve.
Read Article ↗ 📋 Brief 📊 Poster 🎥 Video
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We work with governments, civil society, and funders across Canada. If you have a question our research can help answer, get in touch.

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