Browsing by Author "Childs, Jason"

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Open Access
An Effective Retail and Distribution Model for Recreational Cannabis
(2017-12) Childs, Jason; Hartner, George
The Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy (JSGS) has issued an in-depth policy paper on the legalization of cannabis in Canada. By July 2018, the production, distribution, and sale of cannabis will be legal across the country. The Government of Canada's decision to legalize and regulate was driven by three core objectives: 1. Dismantle the illicit market. 2. Restrict youth access. 3. Minimize harm. In very short order, provincial governments have to develop policy regimes and in some instances without the necessary evidence typically required to ensure effectiveness. One of the biggest problems is that a fully legalized cannabis sector is so new that we lack any system of best practices and must instead rely on piecing together evidence from across a number of poicy lenses, including public health, public safety, economics, and innovation. While some provinces and professional associations have understandably requested more time to prepare for the Act coming into force, the Federal Government has had little appetite for putting off legalizaiton. The underlying logic is that any delay would mean another year of doing nothing to keep cannabis out of the hands of youth and to keep profits out of the illicit market. Faced with the scope of the policy issues and the time pressure to put an effective regulatory system in place, the JSGS has released a report examining the policy challenges.
Open Access
Assessing the Privatization of Retail Alcohol Sales
(2015-10) Childs, Jason; Siebert, Alexander
Control and regulation of alcohol by governments has a long and varied history in Western Canada. In fact, it traces back to even before there were provinces, to the time when the Northwest Territories were controlled by Canada's Parliament. With liquor laws eventually coming under provincial jurisdiction, it's not surprising policies have evolved to the point where the provinces of Western Canada take different approaches to balancing the benefits of liberal alcohol policy and the social harm alcohol abuse causes. Finding the right policy prescription is an on-going challenge.
Open Access
Dimensions of competition in urban cannabis markets
(Wiley, 2023-09) Childs, Jason; MacDonald, Calum
AbstractWe report the results of a survey of legal cannabis retail operators in the two largest urban centres of a Canadian province that uses a fully private model to determine the dimensions of competition between retail outlets. We find that, in addition to expected price and location competition, customer loyalty is central in the opinion of retailers. Firms also did not see the illicit market as their primary competition, instead identifying nearby legal retailers as their main competitors. Restrictions on advertising loomed large in the minds of retailers as a policy‐based impediment to their success. These results are further supported by visual inspection of the exterior of all stores in one of the urban centres.
Open Access
Energy Inefficiency of Canadian goods producing industries: Policy opportunities
(2017-02) Childs, Jason; Gamtessa, Samuel
Canadians face a daunting challenge. The Government of Canada has committed to reducing emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) to 522.9 million tonnes by 2030, a 32 per cent reduction from current levels. In 2014 Canada emitted 7681 million tonnes of CO2, which means Canadians will be required to reduce emissions by 245.1 tonnes to meet this objective. Given the magnitude of the challenge, it's critical to recognize the reality Canada faces. There are really only two ways Canadians can meet the national target - by reducing energy inefficiency, or by reducing their material standard of living. In this Policy Brief, we explore the potential for reducing CO2 emissions by eliminating inefficiency.
Open Access
Legalizing Cannabis in Canada: Regulate, Educate, Mitigate and Innovate
(2017-11) McNutt, Kathleen; Childs, Jason; Hartner, George
The legalization of marijuana, whether as a point of public debate or explicit policy action, has been on the public mind in Canada for decades. It reaches back to the 1969 LeDain Royal Commission on the non-medical use of drugs. Among its recommendations was repeal of the criminal law prohibiting possession of cannabis.
Open Access
Motivators of recreational Cannabis consumption in Canada
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2022-07) Poirier, Angèle Lucie; Childs, Jason; Mirzaei, Omid; Stevens, Jason; Camillo, Cheryl
Using Canada’s National Cannabis Survey, we analyze the behaviour of self-reported consumers and non-consumers of both legal and illicit recreational cannabis, post-legalization. Using a two-part hurdle model, we find that: males are more likely to consume legal cannabis than not consume at all, but are not more likely to consume illicit cannabis than none at all; and that teens are more likely to consume illicit cannabis and less likely to consume legal cannabis. Once consuming, males consume the same amount of illicit cannabis as non-males, but more legal cannabis than non-males. Being retired or being unemployed have no effect on whether consuming small or large amounts of cannabis, whether legal or illicit. People who live in rural settings may consume more illicit cannabis than people who do not live in rural settings, but this makes no difference for legal cannabis. Finally, the own-price elasticity of demand for illicit cannabis is -0.37 and -0.38 for legal cannabis: both inelastic. These findings are important for anyone with an interest in discouraging consumption of either legal recreational cannabis, illicit recreational cannabis, or both. Given the inelasticity of demand, increasing prices will do little to deter consumption. Focus should therefore be put on other non-price policies for discouraging consumption based on the negative effects that cannabis can have, especially heavy use of cannabis consumption and the associated cannabis-use disorder. For those with an interest in maximizing profits from the sale of cannabis, the inelasticity of demand is important. Given that demand is inelastic, increases in price will result in increasing profits and increased tax revenues in the legal market.
Open Access
Policy issue networks: Social network analysis case studies
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2023-07) Katchuck, Michelle Lisa; McNutt, Kathleen; Longo, Justin; Rayner, Jeremy; Childs, Jason; Stoddart, Mark CJ
This research demonstrates that Social Network Analysis (SNA) can be a powerful, proactive tool for policy makers to understand the online policy networks in which they operate. It does so by undertaking SNA at two points in time to quantify the actor nodes of three Canadian public policy networks, comparing the network evolution over time, and visualizing their structure and relationships with related policy issues. The three Canadian policy case study subjects are cannabis legalization, nuclear energy development, and the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion project (TMX). The cases were selected for their current social importance and national concern, and complexity as socio-technical systems. Cannabis legalization represents a social policy shift, while the other two policy issues involve highly technical infrastructure projects to provide the energy that drives modern society at a time when energy solutions and needs are shifting. The research was undertaken to answer three main questions: Does a network structure consist of multiple clusters of subnetworks primarily concerned with tangential issues but bridged together to form a network for this policy issue? Is there any evidence of network effects that affect the network’s evolution over time? Finally, is there evidence that regional or international networks are present? The study’s findings provide significant evidence that addresses these questions. For example, for question one, the cannabis legalization network shows an isolated online community primarily interested in the research and use of cannabis as a medical treatment, an issue tangential to the primary policy focus but connected to the policy issues. For question two, Canada’s stated nuclear policy shift toward small modular reactors reveals an online issue network dominated by industry rather than government actors. Finally, regarding question three, the study found that regional clusters were especially apparent in the cannabis legalization and TMX networks. This research provides insight into the policy networks of the specific cases, which contributes to the literature on these policy topics and network analysis in terms of network structure and evolution. It also validates the use of SNA in a policy analysis toolkit. Where existing literature has examined Internet-age government, it has found that governments often replicate routine procedures and processes in new, virtual forms rather than innovate or reimagine their capabilities. Government actors have improved their responsiveness, but they also need to fundamentally change their behaviour, particularly in engaging stakeholders in meaningful public policy analysis. SNA is a novel use afforded by technology that has gone unexplored to innovate government performance. This dissertation adds to the lengthy body of research in SNA by experimenting with a practical application of its theories and methods. The critical conceptual approach underpinning this thesis is complexity theory, which provides the framework to situate the dynamic environment of policy making and stakeholder engagement. It is hoped that this research will help policy makers by providing a toolkit that enables visualizing how issue patterns emerge in real-time, patterns that can represent the “unknown unknowns” — the voices not yet heard, the unanticipated concerns, and the opportunities not yet discovered to reach out to broader or underrepresented communities in the policy arena.
Open Access
Relative state and decision making under risk
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2022-06) Fogg, Cody Joseph; Mishra, Sandeep; Phenix, Tom; Bruer, Kaila; Pennycook, Gordon; Childs, Jason
The recently developed (and mathematically formalized) relative state model of risk-taking suggests that individuals are motivated by two non-independent pathways to risk-taking: a need-based pathway, wherein risk-taking is the preferable course of action because a non-risky decision fails to meet an individual’s needs; and an ability-based pathway, wherein risk-taking is the preferable course of action because individuals are in such a good state that taking risks offers a higher expected value than non-risky alternatives. I tested the predictive value of the relative state model using a modified version of the Ecological Decision Task (ECO Task; Mishra & Lalumière, 2010), which asked participants to “forage” apples from trees which differ in the outcome variance associated with the outcomes, such that the yellow tree provides 10 or 11 apples each time, whereas the blue tree provides between four and 17 apples. Participants chose from the two trees in hopes of meeting some need-threshold that ranged from needing four apples to needing 31 apples. I separated participants into three conditions: a poor-state condition where participants needed many apples to meet their need; a moderate-state condition where participants needed a moderate number of apples to meet their need; and a good-state condition where participants needed a small number of apples to meet their need. I predicted that those in the poor-state and good-state conditions would choose the riskier (blue) tree more often than those in the moderate-state condition. I tested the results using a Kruskal-Wallis test (N = 293) and found support for the need-based (Obs. Diff. = 74.48, Crit. Diff. = 29.20), but not ability-based (Obs. Diff. = 5.41, Crit. Diff. = 29.06) pathway. Exploratory analyses elucidated many causal, decision-level variables, while also highlighting limitations with the study of risk-taking. I discuss implications for the relative state model, future research using the experimental task from the current study, and risk-taking research in the discussion.