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Policy Transfer Among Regional-Level Organizations: Insights from Source Water Protection in Ontario

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Abstract

Organizations at the local and regional scales often face the challenge of developing policy mechanisms rapidly and concurrently, whether in response to expanding mandates, newly identified threats, or changes in the political environment. In the Canadian Province of Ontario, rapid, concurrent policy development was considered desirable by 19 regional organizations tasked with developing policies for protection of drinking water sources under very tight and highly prescribed mandates. An explicit policy transfer approach was used by these organizations. Policy transfer refers to using knowledge of policies, programs, and institutions in one context in the development of policies, programs, and institutions in another. This paper assesses three online mechanisms developed to facilitate policy transfer for source water protection in Ontario. Insights are based on a survey of policy planners from the 19 regional organizations who used the three policy transfer tools, supplemented by an analysis of three policies created and transferred among the 19 regional source water protection organizations. Policy planners in the study indicated they had used policy transfer to develop source protection policies for their regions—a finding confirmed by analysis of the text of policies. While the online policy transfer tools clearly facilitated systematic policy transfer, participants still preferred informal, direct exchanges with their peers in other regions over the use of the internet-based policy transfer mechanisms created on their behalf.

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  1. Available online: http://plagiarism.bloomfieldmedia.com/z-wordpress/software/wcopyfind/.

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Acknowledgments

The study was completed through a partnership between the Water Policy and Governance Group (WPGG) at the University of Waterloo (Rob de Loë, Director) and Conservation Ontario. We would like to thank all of the study participants who contributed their time and energy in support of this study. We would specifically like to thank Sandra Hogan, Source Water Protection Liaison, and Charley Worte, Interim General Manager, our research partners at Conservation Ontario. This study was made possible through the financial support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Project 865-2008-0050), and the Canadian Water Network (Project NCE - 4000-2010-4209). Responsibility for all errors and omissions rests with the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    R. C. de Loë

  2. Water Policy and Governance Group, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    R. C. de Loë, D. Murray & R. Plummer

  3. Department of Political Science and Public Policy Center, University of Nebraska, 533 Oldfather Hall, Lincoln, NE, USA

    S. Michaels

  4. Environmental Sustainability Research Centre, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON, Canada

    R. Plummer

  5. Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    R. Plummer

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  1. R. C. de Loë
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  2. D. Murray
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  4. R. Plummer
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Correspondence to R. C. de Loë.

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de Loë, R.C., Murray, D., Michaels, S. et al. Policy Transfer Among Regional-Level Organizations: Insights from Source Water Protection in Ontario. Environmental Management 58, 31–47 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-016-0699-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-016-0699-x

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