Our people

Michael Mendelson was Senior Scholar at the Caledon Institute of Social Policy. He has previously held senior public service positions in Ontario and Manitoba: Deputy Secretary (Deputy Minister) of Cabinet Office in Ontario; Assistant Deputy Minister in Ontario’s Ministries of Finance, Community Services and Health; Secretary to Treasury Board and Deputy Minister of Social Services in Manitoba. He is currently Chair of the Board of the Environics Institute and also a trustee of two private investment companies.

Michael has published many articles on social and fiscal policy including: ‘Basic Income’ or ‘Bait and Switch’? [Caledon Institute]; The Training Wheels Are Off: A Closer Look at the Canada Job Grant with Noah Zon [Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation and the Caledon Institute]; Is Canada (still) a fiscal union? [Caledon Institute]; The UK in 2011 is not Canada in 1996 [Barrow Cadbury Foundation, London, UK]; Aboriginal Peoples and Postsecondary Education in Canada [Caledon Institute]; Financing the Canada and Quebec Pension Plans [American Association of Retired Persons, Public Policy Institute, Washington]; Measuring Child Benefits: Measuring Child Poverty [Caledon Institute]; Benefits for Children: A Four Country Study ed. with Ken Battle [Caledon Institute and the J. Rowntree Foundation].

Management consultant, think tanker, and senior economic advisor to the Prime Minister, Tyler Meredith brings nearly two decades of experience at the intersection of economics, public policy, and politics.

Tyler was the lead author of the 2019 and 2021 winning election platforms of the Liberal Party of Canada, helped lead the delivery of six federal budgets and five economic statements, and contributed to the writing of multiple ministerial mandate letters during government transition.

Until his departure in late 2022, Tyler was the lead economic advisor for Justin Trudeau and two Ministers of Finance – Chrystia Freeland and Bill Morneau. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he was the principal architect of the the government’s economic response, including work on the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy, Response Benefit, and Rent Subsidy programs. From 2016-2022 his work touched nearly all aspects of the government’s social and economic agenda, from financial sector and tax policy, to the creation of the National Housing Strategy and Poverty Reduction Strategy, to the negotiation of the 2017 health accords.

At Maytree, Tyler will focus on issues related to ending chronic homelessness, supporting the development of policies that promote more inclusive and equitable labour market and income security outcomes for all Canadians, and contributing to the work of Maytree Policy School.

Before working in government, Tyler was the economic research director for the Institute for Research on Public Policy, where he oversaw and authored numerous peer reviewed publications on Canadian economic policy, income security issues and labour market dynamics. He was also previously a management consultant for nearly five years.

Photo credit: Alex Tetreault (PMO)

Bruce is the Director of the Social Rights Advocacy Centre and a consultant retained by the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights to assist the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing. He has published many articles and book chapters on social rights and has played a leading role in promoting social rights internationally. He addressed the Constitutional Assembly in South Africa on the inclusion of socio-economic rights in its constitution and continues to work with advocates there. He was a founding member of ESCR-Net – an international network of NGOs and advocates for social rights and is active with the Strategic Litigation Working Group. He represented non-governmental organizations in the negotiation of the historic complaints procedure for social rights adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2008.

In Canada, Bruce has co-directed a major ten-year research project in social rights and has co-ordinated strategic litigation, including thirteen interventions at the Supreme Court of Canada by the Charter Committee on Poverty Issues. He was co-representative in the recent precedent-setting case before the UN Human Rights Committee on access to health care in Nell Toussaint v Canada and helped to develop the successful Charter challenge on freedom of expression of charities in Canada Without Poverty v Canada. He was a Commissioner on the Ontario Human Rights Commission from 2016-2019. He helped develop successful proposals to entrench the right to housing in the National Housing Strategy Act (2019)  and is now working with civil society organizations to ensure its effective implementation.