Social Policy Shop

UPDATE

The material on this site has been sent to subscribers by e-mail, and will be integrated into the other parts of the site (if warranted) within three months.  The same material is provided here only as a back-up reference for subscribers.

Most recent newsletter (December 7, 1998)

First, the United Nations committee reviewing Canada's compliance with the International Convention on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights reported on Friday, and found the governments' responses inadequate. Their report is available on the Internet at http://www.web.net/~ngoun98/conclud98.htm. The governments' submissions to the Committee also provide a wealth of information, and are available on-line. The federal response is at http://www.comnet.ca/~gilseg/uncan.htm; a list of all the provincial reports, with hotlinks to them, is at http://www.comnet.ca/~gilseg/rights.htm. While the report deals with a wide range of issues, one of the most interesting is the Committee's distress over the federal government's inability to determine the extent to which its obligations are being achieved, because of the Canada Health and Social Transfer and the absence of reporting requirements within it. Also of interest are comments on housing, the particularly adverse impacts of social policy reform on women, and the failure of government to achieve progress for persons with disabilities.

Much of the Committee's findings were based on extremely good homework by non-goverment organizations including the Charter Committee on Poverty Issues (at http://www.web.net/~ccpi/ ), the National Anti-Poverty Organization (at http://www.napo-onap.ca and the brief at http://www.web.net/povnet/geneva-napo.html) and the National Association of Women and the Law, whose brief can be found at http://www.web.net/povnet/geneva-NAWL.html.

Other items of interest include the social union negotiations, wherein the framework rules for how social policy gets made and programs get introduced and funded are being negotiated by the federal and provincial governments, behind closed doors. While little has been said publicly about these negotiations, the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs has delivered one speech on the subject. It is available on the Internet at http://www.pco-bcp.gc.ca/aia/ro/doc/spchoct1598.htm.

Federal, provincial and territorial governments have also released a "vision paper" entitled "In Unison: A Canadian Approach to Disability Issues". Short on details, the paper is long on rhetoric, and identifies as next steps the expansion of the discussion by social services ministers to include those responsible for labour markets and more. Nonetheless, the paper provides interesting reading, and has some useful appendices. It can be found at http://socialunion.gc.ca/pwd/unison/unison_e.html.

Campaign 2000 recently released its "report card" on child poverty in Canada, demonstrating increases in child poverty rates in almost every province, and reductions in supports available to children. The Report Card and associated data and charts are available on-line at http://www.campaign2000.ca/index2.htm.

Provincially, New Brunswick has announced a special committee to examine social policy renewal. The process began with roundtable discussions involving 38 community groups and 17 government representatives, and is being chaired by Education Minister Bernard Richard. The process calls for community consultations in the early months of the new year. The press release announcing the committee is available on-line at http://www.gov.nb.ca/cnb/news/pre/8e1545pr.htm. Also available is the Premier's speech to the first roundtable meeting. It is at http://www.gov.nb.ca/OP_CPM/speech/round.htm.

Internationally, the UK government has negotiated "compacts" with the voluntary sector in Scotland, Northern Ireland and England. The English compact can be found on-line at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/vcu/compact.pdf; the Irish compact is at http://www.nicva.org/compact.html; a summary of the Scottish compact is at http://www.sol.co.uk/s/scvo/news/pr_6.htm.

New and noteworthy websites focussed on poverty issues include The Joint Center for Poverty Research in Chicago, at http://www.jcpr.org/, the Child Welfare Research Centre (University of Northern British Columbia) at http://www.unbc.ca/cwrc_page/home.htm, the Scottish Poverty Information Unit at http://spiu.gcal.ac.uk/home.html, and the US Welfare Information Network, billed as A Clearinghouse for Information, Policy Analysis and Technical Assistance on Welfare Reform, at http://www.welfareinfo.org/.

New and noteworthy websites on more general social policy issues include Social Policy, the journal, located at http://www.socialpolicy.org/, including full text of most articles, including in the current issue; an overview of social security programs in many countries around the world (but note that social security does not include what we think of as "social assistance" in this US site) at http://www.ssa.gov/statistics/ssptw97.html; and a Canadian govenrment site linking to all the policy and/or research shops in federal departments and agencies, at http://policyresearch.schoolnet.ca/community/fed-e.htm.