I have been placed with the Legislative Research in my Assembly placement. Legislative Research provides non-partisan research support to Members and committees on a range of public policy topics. It does this in a variety of ways, including responding to specific questions from members and their constituents, as well as providing research to committees and publishing independent research papers on policy issues relevant to the Legislative Assembly. Importantly, Legislative Research must ensure that its research does not present a partisan view or lead the debate on any topic. Research Officers must always seek to present all sides of any issue and objectively present all evidence.
In my time with Legislative Research, I have been primarily working on updating Provincial Affairs Briefings, especially those related to COVID-19, and providing additional research support to the Research Officers. I have enjoyed being able to engage in a number of policy topics, from Great Lakes conservation policy to the state of Ontario’s auto industry. My placement has exposed me to the sheer breadth of the research topics that the Legislative Assembly and its staff are wrestling with at any given time. This experience has allowed me to hone my professional research skills and provided me with a practical primer on the policy issues that I may be dealing with on the political side when I begin my MPP placement.
I want to thank everyone at Legislative Research for an intellectually stimulating start to my internship and I hope that I can continue to work with them as I move on to the next stages of my OLIP year!