Federal Canada Research Articles

Reforms to Earnings Supplement Programs in British Columbia:Making Work Pay for Low-Income Workers

Some individuals work nearly full-time and most-year at low wages but remain poor. An effective way to assist the “working poor” is to supplement their earnings, which lifts them from poverty by rewarding their work. This paper explores how an earnings supplement program for British Columbia could serve this goal. Through quantitative simulations we explore alternative approaches, such as a cost-neutral reconfiguration of the federal Canada Workers Benefit and a provincial top-up to the CWB. These exercises provide insight into the trade-offs in benefits, costs, and poverty impacts of varying the structure and parameters of programs focused on B.C. We find that a cost-neutral reconfiguration of the CWB for B.C. has limited impact on poverty rates for childless singles, while increasing poverty rates for other family types. In contrast, a combination of CWB reconfiguration with a provincial CWB top-up targeted at low-earning childless single workers could significantly improve outcomes for that group. At a cost to the province of $400 million, this scheme could reduce the numbers of such workers in poverty by 18,000 while raising the incomes of many more of the working poor. Such a program could be administered simply by the Canada Revenue Agency as an add-on to the CWB.

Earnings Supplementation for British Columbia: Pros, Cons, and Structure

This paper provides background on key issues for the reform of earnings supplement (ES) programs in B.C.: motivation, policy history, and structure of existing and potential provisions. ES programs offer benefits that are linked to an individual’s earnings, as distinguished from programs that offer cash transfers that are unconditional on work or earnings. Thus, the motivations for the ES benefit structure are related to views about reciprocity, self-respect, and social participation and contribution. As a consequence, ES programs have garnered wide support across the political spectrum. The paper describes the ES benefit structure, its parameters, and its operational aspects. The federal Canada Workers Benefit (CWB) is the only ES program currently available for B.C. residents. Options for reform or enhancement of the CWB for B.C. workers are surveyed and assessed at a qualitative level: cost-free reconfiguration of the CWB, provincial top-ups to the CWB, and the institution of a B.C. scheme funded and operated by the province.

“Sacred Trust”: Rethinking Late British Decolonization in Indigenous Canada

AbstractThis article considers the political activism of Canada's Indigenous peoples as a corrective to the prevailing narrative of British decolonization. For several decades, historians have described the end of empire as a series of linear political transitions from colony to nation-state, all ending in the late 1960s. But for many colonized peoples, the path to sovereignty was much less straightforward, especially in contexts where the goal of a discrete nation-state was unattainable. Canada's Indigenous peoples were one such group. In 1980, in the face of separatism in Quebec, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pledged to renew the Canadian Confederation by bringing home the constitution, which was still retained by the British Parliament. But many Indigenous leaders feared that this final separation of powers would extinguish their historic bilateral treaties with the British crown, including the Royal Proclamation of 1763 that guaranteed Indigenous sovereignty in a trust relationship with Britain. Indigenous activists thus organized lobbying campaigns at Westminster to oppose Trudeau's act of so-called patriation. This article follows the Constitution Express, a campaign organized by the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs in 1981. Maneuvering around the nuances of British political and cultural difference, activists on the Constitution Express articulated and exercised their own vision of decolonization, pursuing continued ties to Britain as their best hope for securing Indigenous sovereignty in a federal Canada.

Party System in Parliamentary Federal Canada and India

Party System in Parliamentary Federal Canada and India

Examining private and public provision in Canada’s provincial health care systems: comparing Ontario and Quebec

Globally, the mix of private- and public-sector involvement in health care delivery is a focus of political concern. This concern in Canada takes place within the parameters of the federal Canada Health Act. Private for-profit activities in the health care sector in Canadian provinces have moderately shrunk the definition of ‘necessary medical and hospital services’ that must be provided by the public administration system under the federal Canada Health Act. In this article, we argue that the development of new technologies, pharmaceutical innovations, competing (non-health) demands on the federal dollar, and an aging population together create an environment where pressures for economic and political sustainability have led to some erosion of necessary health services in the provinces. Such pressures have, in turn, led to the growth of private commercial-sector health services. Within Canada’s federal system, provincial negotiation of the role of commercial health care organizations has developed in different ways in Ontario and Quebec. Such subnational developments are a significant focus for comparative health policy analysis.

Learning to be a majority: Negotiating immigration, integration and national membership in Quebec

Political leaders in Quebec have long grappled with the question of how immigrants and diversity fit into an already contested national identity. This article explores how Quebec’s elites have negotiated immigrant-generated diversity over three decades. The article argues that to make sense of Quebec’s policy-making we need to understand the interplay of different strands of collective identity. Quebec’s policies are shaped both by relational comparisons made with the ‘rest of Canada’ and by the aspiration to be a legitimate actor on the international stage. In contrast to studies suggesting sub-state nations such as Quebec either exclude migrants or are progressively more open to them, the analysis here shows that policies result from political elites’ constant balancing of different conceptions of national identity — as state-like actor, as minority claimant relative to the federal government, as diffident majority defining itself. In turn, migration policy choices themselves are used as a nation-building tool vis-à-vis federal Canada.

PODEJŚCIA TRANSLATORYCZNE STOSOWANE W WIELOJĘZYCZNYM ŚRODOWISKU KANADY I UE

Th is paper willfocus on the converging and diverging elements of theidiosyncratic legal regimes of federal Canada and of the supranational European Union. The methodology applied in Canada in terms of the stages in identifying the points of contact between the diff erent legal systems and languages in relation to the procedure adopted in cases of conceptual and terminological non-correspondence, as well as the draft ing techniques employed and the justifi cation for choice in each particular instance, will be highlighted. The Canadian approach to terminological issues in the ongoing process of harmonizing federallegislation will be considered as a possible model for felicitous solutions regarding current pressing diffi culties in the translation of legal terms in the European Union.

Examining Fiscal Federalism, Regionalization and Community-Based Initiatives in Canada's Health Care Delivery System

SUMMARY This study focuses on the ability of Canadian provinces to shape in different ways the development of various provincial health delivery systems within the constraints of the mandates of the federal Canada Health Act of 1984 and the fiscal revenues that the provinces receive if they comply with these mandates. In so doing, it will examine the operation of Canadian federalism with respect to various provincial health systems. This study applies a comparative analysis framework developed by Heisler and Peters to facilitate an understanding of the dimensionality of provincial health delivery systems as applied to the case of provincial regionalization and community-based initiatives. The three sets of relationships touched upon are: first, the levels of government and the nature of their involvement in public policy concerning the provincial health care delivery systems; and secondly, understanding of the factors influencing provincial governments' political dispositions to act in various directions. A third dimension that is taken are the factors influencing the “timing” of particular decisions. A fourth area noted by Heisler and Peters and other comparative analysts is the nature and characteristics of public and private sector activities in health care and other social policy areas. While the evolving nature of public and private sector health care delivery activities within Canada's provincial and territorial systems is a significant policy matter in the Canadian context, due to the space limitations of this article, they are not discussed herein.

Steps on the Road to Medicare: Why Saskatchewan Led the Way (review)

Reviewed by: Steps on the Road to Medicare: Why Saskatchewan Led the Way Shelley McKellar (bio) C. Stuart Houston. Steps on the Road to Medicare: Why Saskatchewan Led the Way McGill-Queen’s University Press. x,163. $55.00, $22.95 By all reports, Canada's health care system is in trouble. Current headlines point to concerns about SARS and its containment, long waiting times for many diagnostic (and in some cases therapeutic) treatments, busy emergency rooms (often being used as walk-in clinics), closed medical practices leaving many Canadians without family doctors, lack of long-term health care facilities for the aging population, and the list goes on. Health care services may have declined, but Canadians are not ready to abandon the universally accessible, publicly funded system. We still take pride in our federal Canada Health Act. C. Stuart Houston reminds us how and why the medicare system was conceptualized and enacted. In Steps on the Road to Medicare, Houston argues that Saskatchewan co-operative community spirit and individualism were the greatest contributing factors to why this province led the way towards universal medicare in Canada. Houston chronicles numerous Saskatchewan 'firsts' - such as municipal doctor legislation, free diagnosis [End Page 465] and treatment of tuberculosis, a health plan for pensioners and widows, among others - and describes the role of individuals like Maurice Seymour, Robert George Ferguson, Allan Blair, Harold Johns, and Tommy Douglas who introduced these initiatives. These men sought a publicly funded system to provide better health care against acute, infectious diseases (like typhoid, scarlet fever, diphtheria, tuberculosis) and to initiate preventative health strategies for Saskatchewan residents, and eventually for all Canadians. In the concluding chapter, Houston challenges us to 'emulate the co-operative spirit, altruism, and ingenuity' demonstrated by the Saskatchewan people towards maintaining the original universal health care vision and ideals in meeting many of today's challenges to Canada's health care system. This is a brief and selective introductory account of Saskatchewan medicare initiatives. Houston has not drawn extensively from the secondary source literature on the topic or presented any new primary material for this account. The chapters are often uneven and disconnected. Individuals (leaders) are emphasized more than co-operative community spirit (Saskatchewan rural people), which is never fully expanded upon. Students attempting to situate these health care initiatives within a larger context will have difficulties and will inevitably have questions relating to political barriers, economic challenges, power struggles, regional conflicts and changes in diseases and treatments, among other issues. Its value for specialists wanting more than 'firsts' and 'individual' initiatives will be limited. It is clear that Houston, a Saskatchewan physician and University of Saskatchewan medical imaging professor, enjoyed writing this book - for himself and others in the Saskatchewan medical community who are proud of their 'firsts' and the 'individuals' who introduced these measures. The audience for this book will be non-specialist readers interested in Houston's reflections and anecdotes, which he has collected over the years. For example, this includes a conversation that Houston had with Tommy Douglas in 1983 over the decision to authorize the development of cobalt bomb cancer treatment during the 1940s. A leader that the author states was 'the right man in the right place at the right time,' much more on Douglas could have been included in this book. Acknowledging possible 'charges of hero-worship, bragging and jingoism,' Houston nonetheless celebrates the ideals and innovations of these Saskatchewan men, hopeful that solutions to today's health care system problems will be forthcoming. Yet today's medical world is quite a different one from that of these medicare pioneers. The challenge will be fixing our troubled health care system without betraying its original intent but acknowledging the changing medical context of today's aging population, chronic illnesses, and costs of high-technology medicine. Shelley McKellar Shelley McKellar, Department of History, University of Western Ontario Copyright © 2005 University of Toronto Press Incorporated

Canadian Fiscal Federalism, Regionalization, and the Development of Quebec's Health Care Delivery System

Abstract The availability of federal funding, or the limits of such funding, shape the parameters of “reform” at the provincial level within the Canadian health care delivery system and within the constraints of the Canada Health Act. We will examine how “fiscal federalism” sets parameters with respect to the “regionalization” reforms of provincial health care delivery systems and also influences such trends as “privatization” which are occurring in the Canadian provinces (and territories). Finally, after this contextual presentation, we will utilize the province of Quebec as a case study of the interface of developments in a provincial health care system and the context of the federal Canada Health Act and fiscal federalism.

Reducing the rate of teen pregnancy in Canada: A framework for action

In partnership with the Young/Single Parent Support Network of Ottawa-Carleton and Timmin's Native Friendship Centre, the Canadian Institute of Child Health has completed a framework to reduce the rate of teen pregnancy in Canada. The final document is called Pro-Action, Postponement, and Preparation/Support: A Framework for Action to Reduce the Rate of Teen Pregnancy in Canada. The objectives were to learn what is currently being done and what needs to be done on this issue across the country, and to explore the potential role of projects funded by the federal Canada Action Program for Children (CAPC) and Canada Prenatal Nutrition Program (CPNP) in reducing the rate of teen pregnancy. Being an extremely complex and sensitive issue, the report was a culmination of a number of research methods: over 40 key informants from diverse backgrounds and expertise were interviewed to determine the scope of the problem and potential solutions; a detailed literature review identified existing date and documentation on the topic, using both Canadian and international studies; youth surveys and focus groups were conducted in both on-reserve Aboriginal communities and non-Aboriginal communities.

Welfare and the Family: The Canadian Experience

Canada has a universal social assistance program that is almost completely administered through the federal Canada Assistance Program. However, provinces determine the levels of assistance for various groups eligible for welfare. This article exploits the variation in payments and uses microdata to estimate the effect of changes in welfare benefits on welfare participation, single parenthood, births out of wedlock, divorce, and labor force participation among low-income women. In Canada, it would appear that welfare benefits influence these decisions.