Objective:
What’s your better idea? It’s easy to criticize; it’s harder to create. But this is your time to leave your mark.
How do you think we should balance the needs of people and nature? How can the political process help your idea become a reality?
Propose a new policy that will advance your vision for balancing the needs of people and nature in your community or in our country.
Process:
You investigated why this class – why politics and policy-making – matters. You brainstormed a series of questions and then dug deeper. You took your research, decided on the one better question that must be answered and created a plan to do just that. Now it’s time to bring together everything you’ve learned and done. The answer to your better question is how you think we should balance the needs of people and nature. And that answer? It will be the focus of your policy proposal.
Your idea should play to your interests and strengths (if you love science, focus on science policy; if you love math, focus on financial policy), and work to solve a problem by bringing our nation together, rather than deepening divides. Maybe your policy’s goal will be to change or create a new law. Maybe it will be to legislate a solution, like a land-use change. Maybe it will be to propose a new government process or incent innovation or behaviour. No matter your goal, your policy will help shape the future of our country.
Skill Development:
creative thinking, research, organization, responsibility, leadership, time-management, independence, collaboration, critiquing, reviewing, communication, self-starting, self-regulation, critical thinking, citizenship, awesomeness
Final Product:
You will produce a draft bill, a briefing note detailing your policy proposal and a presentation pitching your policy idea.
Draft Bill: By creating a draft bill, you will gain an appreciation for how our system works and the level of detail required to change or pass legislation in Canada. Your teacher will determine what components of a bill you need to include in the draft you hand in, but structure and templates can be found below. Templates of municipal motions can be found on your local government’s web site.
- How Canadian bills are structured
- Sample bills and templates (we recommend this template in the linked resource)
Briefing Note: A briefing note is a one-to-two page overview of your policy proposal and is used to highlight your research and underscore why your solution will work. Briefing notes help raise awareness, build support and get your proposal on the order paper – and, as a bonus, knowing how to write one will help you succeed in many careers.
- How to write a briefing note (though the content is archived, the information is great!)
- Briefing note templates (this resource is from Scotland, but it’s a good one)
Presentation: Work with your teacher to decide how you will present and pitch your policy proposal (model parliament style, press conference/pitch style, etc).
Tips:
- Ensure your policy is relevant, focused, specific and practical.
- Propose a policy that will endure. What is the future impact? Why is it significant? How do you get a majority of people to support it?
- Be honest about the consequences of your policy and realistic about the outcomes.
- Be politically aware – understand who has the power to make decisions, whether you agree with them or not, and tailor your policy to that audience.
- When proposing a policy in a pitch or a brief, outline broad ideas, appropriate context and don’t use too much jargon (politicians are generalists). You can always cite information to demonstrate the validity of your argument, allowing policy makers to learn more.
- Provide concrete details to support your policy recommendation: a specific example, quotes, endorsements from stakeholders, summary, illustration, etc.
- Demonstrate that you are credible by being able to answer detailed questions about your proposal. Even if your draft bill, policy briefing note and pitch are short, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have more information at the ready.
- Remember to source all data and reference-able fact. Check with your teacher to determine preferred formatting (MLA, APA).
- If you choose to add images, diagrams or charts, ask yourself how it helps prove your point. They’re powerful additions when:
- Providing additional detail
- Highlighting an important point
- Making it easier for people to understand a concept
- Summarizing an idea
- Presenting data
A note on plagiarism: It is unethical and dishonest to steal the work of others. If you use facts or concepts that come from another source, you must reference it. And if you need clarification, we suggest using the online plagiarism checker.
Rubric:
Be sure to read and understand how you will be evaluated on your final project by your teacher.
In Case You Missed It: Why Nature?
Balancing the needs of people and nature is vague. We get that. And it’s intentional.
Why?
We didn’t have to pick nature – two bears – as our metaphor for the challenges we face or the lessons that must be taught. There are always other metaphors. There are always more pressing issues, more socially relevant issues. But for each of those issues – rightly or wrongly – we can’t always agree on right or wrong. Or even where to start.
But nature? We know that before we start debating the value of a park – and before we get into how best to, yes, balance people and nature – if we stop and really look at this?
We can all agree that this is beautiful.
By really stopping to appreciate this scene together, we can see that our natural inheritance is our common humanity. It is what makes us equal. It is what unites us.
Remember what we said when we started: it’s impossible for everyone to agree on how best to strengthen our economy or advance social justice or steward our natural environment. But by finding a common starting point – by using nature to move us away from what we disagree with and toward what we can agree on – we hope that we’ve helped you be more open to listening and learning from those you agree with and those you don’t. Even more importantly, we hope we’ve helped you reimagine what’s actually possible when we work together.
Just like our two bears.
That’s why this is Nature Labs and that’s why our challenge to you is to balance the needs of people and nature. It’s something absolutely critical and it’s a gateway to so much more.
So, what should balancing people and nature look like to you? No clue! And that’s the point. Even if nature is the metaphor – the lens – you can take this in any direction you want.
Maybe you think the best way of balancing people and nature is to ensure every Canadian has an affordable home, because it’s only with this type of security that our population can turn their attention to safeguarding biodiversity. That’s fair.
Maybe you believe that Indigenous and non-Indigenous members of your community need to gather and really listen to each other’s hopes and fears before trust can be built to work together to balance people and nature. Good idea.
Maybe you think the loss of a species in your region will cause a cascade-effect that will not only harm the ecosystem you call home, but will destroy the economic and cultural cornerstones that make this place a good home. For you, maybe you want to change development or recreational practices or protect habitat. That’s a worthy idea too.
Maybe you think we need to help an industry under siege stay viable to support jobs that, byway of taxpayer dollars, will fund that better balance between people and nature. Or maybe you think we just need to invest in your new innovation because, if it succeeds, that’s how we can balance people and nature. Or maybe you think we just need newer nature stories, as that will inspire the population to think of better ways to balance people and nature. Brilliant! Awesome! Absolutely!
You see where we’re going with this? All of these ideas are right. Your idea is right. That’s how we want you to envision balancing the needs of people and nature.
We’re not here to tell you what to think, just to make sure that you do think. And as long as you are thinking critically and are doing your research and are listening and weighing the opinions of those you disagree with? Your idea will contribute to a better Canada and a better world; your idea will help create a better balance between people and nature. As we keep saying: you’ve got this!