Inside Public-Sector Innovation

A practitioner-oriented guide for elected municipal officials and public servants looking to adopt innovative solutions in their organizations.

A practitioner-oriented volume featuring multiple innovations from rural, urban, and suburban Canadian governments of various sizes, Inside Public-Sector Innovation includes rich descriptions of local public-sector strategies associated with successful innovation at scale.

Faced with increasing demands from residents, and amidst growing legal and resource constraints, municipalities are experimenting to find new ways of making things work. Inside Public-Sector Innovation profiles the expertise and experience of local administrators in Canada who have successfully moved innovation from conception to reality.

A practitioner-oriented guide, this volume features multiple innovations from rural, urban, and suburban governments of various sizes. Exploring organizational, process, and service innovations, public administrators directly involved in their implementation highlight lessons for other practitioners considering similar strategies. Chapters cover challenges across policy domains including diversity and inclusion, public health, environmental sustainability, and service delivery inefficiencies. All together, these case studies enhance our understanding of what local public-sector innovation entails and how enterprising public servants can put it to immediate use.

Recognizing local governments in Canada as drivers of experimentation, Inside Public-Sector Innovation advances research through its rich descriptions and analysis of municipal strategies, drawing attention to the unique complications and opportunities associated with innovation at scale.