The following are the policy briefs released by the Niagara Community Observatory. Click on the title to open the PDF file for each policy brief.
- The Young Are the Restless: Attracting and Retaining Young People in the Niagara Area
(March 5, 2009) - Seniors in Niagara: Creating Age-Friendly Communities
(October 1, 2009) Policy Brief #2 with references - Niagara Food: It’s Nutritious, Delicious, and Available But We’re Not Buying It… Why Not?
(March 18, 2010) Policy Brief #3 with references - Niagara’s Natural Park:The Restoration of the Glenridge Quarry into a Naturalization Site
(August 2010) - The Changing Economic Structure of Niagara
(September 21, 2010) - The Changing Nature of Manufacturing in Niagara
(October 2010) - Jobs in Niagara
(November 2010) - More than Fun and Games: Sport’s Contribution to Niagara’s Economy and Wellbeing
(November 2010) - The Use of Social Media in the 2010 Niagara Municipal Election
(March 2011) - Representation on Municipal Councils in Ontario
(September 2011) - What’s growing in Niagara? Farmers’ Markets in the Niagara Region
(August 2012) with references - Poverty and Education: A Niagara Perspective
(September 2012) Policy Brief #12 with references (please note brief was improperly numbered as #11) - Are the Consequences of Poverty Holding Niagara Back?
(September 2012) Policy Brief #13 with references - The Niagara River Remedial Action Plan: 25 Years of Environmental Restoration
(December 2012) - Niagara’s Beaches: Hidden Gems
(June 2013) - Can Niagara Families Afford Child Care?
(April 2013) with references - Cycle Tourism in Niagara Parks
(November 2013) with references - Niagara’s Interactive Digital Media (IDM) Industry
(May 2014) - Sport Legacy in Niagara: Before and After 2015
(May 2014) - Niagara Votes: Ontario Election 2014 Canadians (not) at the polls: a local, provincial and national story
(May 2014) - Niagara Votes: Municipal Election 2014 Voting Patterns of Municipal Elections in Niagara
(September 2014) - Barriers to Post-Secondary Education: Perspectives from Niagara
(March 2015) - Moving Niagara Towards a Knowledge Economy
(October 2015) - Niagara’s Changing Economic Structure
(October 2015) - Downtown Revitalization in St. Catharines: Building the Vibrant Public Space
(June 2016) Currently unavailable online. Contact the NCO for hard copies. - Growing Niagara: A closer look at Niagara’s aging population
(January 2017) - Is There A Skills Gap? Understanding what Niagara employers are looking for in recent graduates
(February 2017) - Youth Employment in Niagara: Mapping the Opportunities (October 2017)
- Scaling Up Niagara: Issue and Approaches to Improving SME Productivity and Growth (November 2017)
- More Than Money: Leveraging the Benefits of Sport Hosting in Niagara (February 2018, revised from print version)
- The Future of Niagara’s Health: Using a Life-Course Approach to Improve Well-being (March 2018)
- Youth In Niagara: Highly Skilled, Highly Mobile (March 2018)
- Cannabis Legalization: Government choices interact with business realities to help or hinder policy goals (April 2018)
- Filling the Void: Economic Development in Post-Industrial Niagara (June 2018)
- Shifting Gears: Examining the recent upswing of Niagara’s manufacturing sector (September 2018)
- The Brock University Effect: How thousands of students and millions of dollars energize the economy of Niagara communities (October 2018)
- Ohnia:kara – An Aspiring Global Geopark (January 2019)
- Under the Knife & Under the Gun: An overview of regional government in Niagara (April 2019)
- Promoting Pollinators: Niagara bees and how to help them (May 2019)
- Niagara’s Agribusiness Sector: Towards a more resilient innovation cluster (June 2019)
- Measuring Culture in Niagara: A Case for its Role in the Economy and Community (July 2019)
- Cross-Border Innovation Corridors: How to support, strengthen and sustain cross-border innovation ecosystems (September 2019)
- Elusive Quest or Emerging Reality: Niagara’s ICT Innovation Cluster (November 2019)
- Reflections on Amalgamation: Where do we go from here? (November 2019)
- Mood Walks: The role of parks and recreation in mental health promotion (April 2020)
- Niagara’s Transportation and Logistics Sector: Becoming a Global Economic Lynchpin (July 2020)
- Gender Representation and Governance in Niagara (Sept. 2020)
- Looking Ahead and Looking Up: Affordable Housing in Niagara (Oct. 2020)
- Land-Use Planning in Niagara: A Study in Multilevel Governance and Smart Growth (Jan. 2021)
- What’s Art Got To Do With It? The role of arts and culture in a community’s survival during a global pandemic (April 2021)
- Parks and Recreation as an Essential Service: Using a health equity lens to strengthen provision in Niagara (May 2021)
- To be, or not to be, remote? Examining the essential factors needed for ongoing remote work success (October 2021)
- Growing Agri-Innovation: Investigating the barriers and drivers to adoption of automation and robotics in Ontario’s agriculture sector (November 2021)
- Improving Safe and Affordable Housing for Women in Niagara, Before and After COVID-19 (September 2022)
- Systemic Barriers and Drivers to Technology Adoption in Canada: Lessons for Agri-Innovation in Ontario from Stakeholders of Canada’s Global Innovation Clusters (October 2022)
special reports and working papers
SPECIAL REPORT: The Economic Impact of COVID-19 on Niagara Women in the Workforce (Sept. 2020)
Neighbourhood Associations and the Municipality: Supporting Citizen Engagement in the City (Working Paper, July 2021)
OMAFRA 2020-22 Growing Agri-Innovation Research Project
Growing Agri-Innovation: Investigating the barriers and drivers to adoption of automation and robotics in Ontario’s agriculture sector (November 2021)
Watch this space for more information.