This assignment is due by e-mail on or before December 8, 2017.
A good briefing note will incorporate evidence that you understood many topics that we covered in the course. Your case assessment applied just one of the topics in the course – you will need to cover more than one of the course topics in your briefing note.
Context
Assume that you are an “environmental economist” working for Environment Canada. You were hired for your ability to provide analysis and advice within the scope of natural resource economics, environmental economics, and ecological economics. In other words, you’re wise about all of what we covered in ENVS 3510.
The Minister, and several senior staff, have been invited to an inter-departmental meeting about setting up a terms of reference for an independent economic analysis of options for the Pickering Lands.
A terms of reference details the expected content of a study. It can include methods to use, perspectives to consider, data to use or to gather, criteria to be measured, and assumptions that the consultant should use (or that the consultant can choose of their own). A terms of reference could specify what not to include. The terms can be prescriptive (“..shall…”) or suggestive (“…could…” / “…should…”).
You are tasked to inform your minister and senior staff by prepare a briefing note. Considering this audience, you may need to explain economic concepts and terms that will not be understood by non-economists. Assume that your Minister is not an economist and did not take ENVS 3510 or an equivalent course.
Assume that cabinet has decided to assess these three options:
Option A (New Airport): The Federal Government would help to fund the construction of a new international airport, to be built starting in 2022, by making the Pickering Lands available for an airport and associated infrastructure.
Option B (No New Airport): Ask existing international airports within the GTA to submit proposals for changes that they could make, after 2022, to reliably handle more passengers or cargo, without a new airport at Pickering. In order to fund the changes, the Federal government would divest its ownership of the Pickering Lands that are not included in Rouge Park.
Option C (No Change): The Pickering lands will remain as Federally-owned lands. Existing leases will be renewed for another 10 years.
Since cabinet has already decided to consider these three options, your briefing note should not propose different options. Also, you should not communicate which option you think is the best.
Template to use
All bold headers below must appear in your briefing note. Include the issue statement in your note exactly as written and without needing to reference me as the author.
Issue
What should be included in a terms of reference for an independent economic assessment of the three options for the Pickering Lands?
Response
Max 250 words. Provide the best and most succinct response to the issue. You may use bullets with one thought (usually just one or two sentences) per bullet.
You will be graded on how well you are able to provide a direct response that is easy to follow and that can be understood on its own.
Considerations
Max 400 words. Explain why the response is appropriate given alternatives. Provide a minimum number of considerations that you considered when you decided upon the best response.
You will be graded by how well you identify the most important considerations relevant to the issue and response you provided.
Background
Max 800 words. Provide background information to help the reader understand your response and considerations. This might include your explanation of relevant concepts, theories, controversies, methods, and relevant examples. You may need to distinguish how your environmental- / ecological- / natural-resource- / economic approach contrasts with conventional economic approaches.
Your writing style in this section should be more formal and academic; e.g. proper paragraphs and a more scholarly way of writing than you might have used earlier under response or considerations.
In this section you should cite the publications that you used as the source of an idea that you paraphrased, or some data that you reproduced. This should be followed by a parenthetical citation of the form (Lastname, Year).
If you use someone’s ideas, you should paraphrase their idea, meaning that you use your own words to describe it. If you use the exact same words as someone else, you must enclose “those same words in quotes” as I just wrote. Ideally you should avoid quotations; it is better to paraphrase, since you can do this more succinctly. You should never use the work of someone else without providing them credit by citing them, otherwise you would be committing plagiarism which is a serious offense. I will report suspected plagiarism to the department, as I have done in the past.
You will be graded upon how well you apply knowledge and skills gained through this course. Remember, this is an assignment in a course about the economics of environmental issues, so you need to provide me with evidence that you: understand relevant economic theory, and can apply it to real-world environmental problems, and that you can communicate this effectively.
References cited
This section is not included in the word count. This section will list all the references that you cited earlier. Do not include references that were not cited; and do not omit any references that were cited.
References must include at least two peer-reviewed journal articles. You will earn a higher grade if you include at least two articles that were not the required readings.
Use the APA style, meaning that your reference cited list will use a similar formatting as I use at the end of all my lecture slides; e.g.:
Lastname, Firstname. Year. Title of publication. Journal Name volume(issue): page range.
Lastname, Firstname. Year. Book title. Publisher city, Publisher company name.
You will be graded on the quality of the references you chose to support your response.
Grading template that totals to 40 points
- Response (/5)
- Considerations (/10)
- Background (/20)
- References cited (/3)
- Flow/style (/2)
Page 65 of the BES handbook details how percent values correspond to letter-grades and qualitative assessments; e.g. 36/40 and above would be an A+ which means “Exceptional: thorough knowledge of concepts and/or techniques and exceptional skill or great originality in their use”. 28/40 would be an average grade of B, which means “Good: Good level of knowledge of concepts and/or techniques and considerable skill in their use”.
Sample briefing note
Here is a sample briefing note on a different issue. This sample gives you a general sense of the expected format and tone.
