What you know - Provincial
The materials below have been selected for their relevance to social policy and legislation in Canada. Clearly not all related documents and sites could be provided, but the intention is to provide the most helpful ones for policy makers and advocates. Your comments on what might be added or dropped will be appreciated. (Please use the feedback form.)
Issues and Topics:
Welfare Reform
Welfare reform has been a global issue, including in Canada. Beginning in the early 1990s, with Lloyd Axworthy's social security reform, and continuing on to the fallout from the CHST implementation, federal and provincial initiatives have coalesced to bring significant changes to the welfare system. Most focus on creating incentives or requirements for welfare recipients to pursue work or training.
Although much of this work is in provincial legislation, the issue has also been analyzed across several jurisdictions. The relevant provincial legislation and materials are as follows:
 | Alberta's Social and Family Services has a page devoted to welfare reform in that province; |
| British Columbia's "social safety net" site describes their reforms; |
| Manitoba's site on welfare reform is entitled "encouraging independence"; |
| New Brunswick does not deal with anything called "welfare" on its site, but it does provide the actual legislation governing family social assistance; |
| Nova Scotia, one of the last provinces to have municipalities delivering some social assistance programs, has negotiated a single-tier system, setting the stage for upcoming welfare reform; a backgrounder on this provides sketchy details. More recently, the Minister responsible announced increases in rates for formerly municipal recipients, again promising a more modern system soon, designed to assist people in moving to employment; |
| Ontario reformed its social assistance legislation into two separate programs: one for persons with disabilities, and one for those able to work. (Note that this is their distinction, not anyone else's!) The press release on the latter, entitled Ontario Works, contains an overview of the changes; |
| Quebec has recently established "incentives" for low-income families; details are provided through links from its basic income security information site; and |
| Saskatchewan's initiative is called "Building Independence: Investing in Families"; details on the program, and links to legislation are provided on this site. |
More general information on "work for welfare", which is where several provincial "reform" exercises have ended or are heading, is also available. Some particularly good sites on this subject follow:
| the Ontario Minister for social services spoke to a public policy conference about Ontario's program -- the speech is available; an Ontario group's analysis, cited on an Australian site, of the workfare program is somewhat different; further, examples of resolutions passed by nongovernment organizations and local governments expressing their concerns about workfare are also on-line; |
| Australia's Senate Committee responded to the government's initiative, entitled "work for the dole"; |
| the Manpower Demonstration Research Center evaluates "work to welfare" programs, first under the US Aid to Families with Dependent Children, and more recently, in its newer incarnations; this chapter of a report puts workfare schemes into historical perspective; |
| the Urban Institute in the US hosted an informal meeting with other researchers and policy makers to discuss what expectations are realistic, for moving women on welfare into the labour market; this summary of the discussion is valuable; |
| an international conference paper describes welfare to work programs in the UK in the context of public welfare and private behaviour; |
| a conference presentation on attempts to integrate sole-support mothers into the labour force in Australia and Canada describes what works and what doesn't; and |
| a Public Broadcasting Service presentation on the Wisconsin work for welfare scheme, considered to be more progressive than most in the US. |
Top
Healthcare Reform
While health care is squarely in provincial jurisdiction, the federal involvement persists, largely through transfers to provincial governments as outlined in the Canada Health Act and the Canada Health and Social Transfer (CHST). However, a combination of reductions in federal transfers, fiscal constraints at the provincial level, and a new belief that funds should be redirected from acute care to prevention and home care has resulted in significant reforms in almost every province. In almost every case, efforts are being made to shift more decision-making to the regional level within provinces, although budgets are being controlled by provincial governments:
| British Columbia recently shifted to a regionally based delivery system, with considerable decentralization. The website intended to keep British Columbians up to date with changes acknowledges that the process had unintended impacts that are now being addressed. |
| In Alberta, reductions in spending on health care have ended, and delivery has been transferred to regional authorities. More recently, however, Alberta Premier Ralph Klein urged other provincial premiers to stand united in seeking to diminish the controls the federal government continues to exercise over provincial policies with regard to health care. |
| Ontario is still in the throes of reform, and the Premier answers frequently asked questions on the web. |
| Manitoba's primary care reform action plan outlines its plans. |
| Saskatchewan has also completed its regionalization (called health renewal), and explains it in an open letter to Saskatchewan residents. |
| Many of the reform initiatives are said to be based on Quebec's health care system, with its strong community base. While changes are also taking place in that province, information focusses on the system as it currently exists. |
| In New Brunswick, health system reform followed a blueprint (not available electronically), and was slowing by 1995. |
| Prince Edward Island, whose reform was implemented in 1993, recently reported on an evaluation of the reform, five years later. |