Institutionalized Inhibition: Examining Constraints on Climate Change Policy Capacity in the Transport Departments of Ontario and British Columbia, Canada

Abstract

This paper examines the interaction between transportation policy and climate change policy in two Canadian provinces, British Columbia and Ontario. The concept of policy capacity is used to qualitatively measure the effectiveness of instruments in advancing goals in an area where established policy paradigms may not be congruent with new initiatives. A review of official policy documents and budgetary information on policy-related spending, as well as primary interviews with policy managers in relevant provincial ministries, reveals that overlapping policy goals and instruments may have created a situation of institutionalized policy inhibition, in which conflicting layers of policy goals and instruments constrain the available policy capacity.