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Company
Profile
firstwrite® is a Canadian research and consulting company working in a number of related fields: public and social policy, issues and trends, labour relations and public sector issues.
We offer extensive experience in the labour movement and the federal public sector, and in communications (written, oral, print and electronic media presentations to a wide variety of audiences). We combine substantial academic and practical expertise in research and analysis, policy development, problem-solving, consensus-building, visioning, creativity, analysis, synthesis, and strategic planning.
Our current research interests include governance
(structure, representation, accountability,
decision-making models, recourse/redress systems and
conflict resolution), employment
(equity, collective bargaining, health and safety,
benefits and workplace rights), cultural issues
(the dynamics of culture-specific legislation
and policy) and human rights .
firstwrite® researches,
prepares and edits articles, reports, oral presentations,
synopses, environmental scans, campaign literature
and other materials as our clients require.
Our
principles
- the most effective
institutions —corporate, non-profit
or government—are those that foster a culture of
shared values rather than one of rules-based adversarial
relations
- the most effective
policy- and decision-making , within
organizations, communities and society as a whole,
require broad input and involvement by those affected,
in a climate of transparency and accountability
- the most effective
leadership does not impose solutions,
but enables and facilitates decision-making and
conflict resolution by the people involved
- the most effective
social change depends upon wide
public accessibility to, and participation in, decision-making
processes; community-based, democratic decision-making;
no representation without accountability; and a
commitment to human rights, including fairness and
equity
Our
website
The firstwrite® website is intended to be interactive. At firstwrite® we consider ourselves to be participants in an on-going dialogue—with clients and potential clients, other consultants and specialists, and interested members of the public.
We invite your comments on our Current Issues and Interests and Reviews pages. Please see our Posting Regulations.
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Reviews | Posting Regulations | Current Issues and Interests | |
Current Issues and Interests
Integrity
of the federal public service upheld
The
recent bullying of Chief Electoral Officer Marc
Mayrand by the House of Commons Committee on
Procedure and House Affairs-and his firmness
and grace under pressure-have raised a number
of troubling public policy issues.
The House Committee,
representing all four parties, unanimously asked
M. Mayrand to change his ruling that veiled
Muslim women do not have to reveal their faces
when they vote. He rightly refused to do so,
citing the unambiguous wording of the Canada
Elections Act, and the fact that he had twice
brought the implications of that wording to
the attention of the parliamentarians engaged
in drafting the legislation.
 More...
Expenditure
Review of Federal Public Sector Compensation
Policy and Comparability
Under the leadership
of former Treasury Board official James Lahey,
a comprehensive, although admittedly management-oriented,
report on federal public sector compensation
has just been released.
More...
UK
passes corporate manslaughter law
Without much
notice in Canada, the UK's Labour government
has passed legislation that would hold corporations
strictly accountable for deaths at work due
to managerial negligence. The Corporate Manslaughter
and Corporate Homicide Act took ten years to
become law. Much of the delay was a result of
the government fighting to exclude deaths in
official custody from the Bill, leading to reversals
in the House of Lords.
More...
The
electoral reform debate in Ontario
continues, if only in the press.
Recently (July 18) we heard from a self-described
"long-time Liberal activist" whose op-ed, in
the Globe & Mail, is headed "Ontario
must wake up to the mixed-member threat."
More...
Nunavut
in the news
The
news out of Nunavut continues to be depressing,
with the odd ray of hope. The first Nunavut
electrical engineer, Joannie Pudluk of Resolute
Bay, graduated this week from the University
of Ottawa. But a long-term epidemic of suicide
continues, as do its companions, joblessness
and despair.
More...
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