Abstract:
Through a case-study analysis of Ontario's ethanol policy, this thesis addresses a number
of themes that are consequential to policy and policy-making: spatiality, democracy and
uncertainty. First, I address the 'spatial debate' in Geography pertaining to the relevance
and affordances of a 'scalar' versus a 'flat' ontoepistemology. I argue that policy is
guided by prior arrangements, but is by no means inevitable or predetermined. As such,
scale and network are pragmatic geographical concepts that can effectively address the
issue of the spatiality of policy and policy-making. Second, I discuss the democratic
nature of policy-making in Ontario through an examination of the spaces of engagement
that facilitate deliberative democracy. I analyze to what extent these spaces fit into
Ontario's environmental policy-making process, and to what extent they were used by
various stakeholders. Last, I take seriously the fact that uncertainty and unavoidable
injustice are central to policy, and examine the ways in which this uncertainty shaped the
specifics of Ontario's ethanol policy. Ultimately, this thesis is an exercise in
understanding sub-national environmental policy-making in Canada, with an emphasis on
how policy-makers tackle the issues they are faced with in the context of environmental
change, political-economic integration, local priorities, individual goals, and irreducible
uncertainty.
