Search

Recent assessments of the federal government's social policy leadership fail to provide a satisfactory linkage between its unilateral actions and its ongoing involvement in intergovernmental bargaining. This paper argues that the federal government is honing old and new tools to shape the direction of provincial policy development. Indeed, many unilateral initiatives appear tied to a broader strategy of assuring the federal government an important place in intergovernmental negotiations. The paper unpacks four key tools (new money, accountability, creation of expertise, and structuring investments) and assesses how they have been employed to rebuild federal leadership to various degrees in the health, child, and labour market policy fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demographic change and policy reorientation are often conflated with economic and social changes in anticipating the social and policy implications of demographic aging. In this paper, an attempt is made to begin to disentangle these factors to gain a clearer sense of the implications of population aging for social and policy responses. Analyzed here are selected socio-economic changes that intervene in the connection of demographic aging to policy, such as actual working patterns by age, education to work timing, retirement patterns, productivity shifts, pension investment shifts, policy changes such as the move toward economic liberalism and away from redistribution and social protection, changing family patterns, and shifts among generations in terms of wealth inequality. These are related to shifts in demographic age structures. Data which are more illustrative than the analytical focus of the paper, come largely from various Statistics Canada sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we re-examine inequality in Canada with a comprehensive look at inequality trends in Atlantic Canada during the period 1969 to 1996. We use consumption expenditure as a measure of family well-being and compare it with the income-based measures of well-being. The results of this study reveal the following: (a) consumption distribution is more equal than the income distribution; (b) inequality trends are sensitive to how family resources are measured; (c) consumption inequality in Atlantic Canada fluctuated considerably until the mid-1980s; and (d) tax and transfer policies have played an important role in reducing income disparities in Atlantic Canada as well as in the rest of Canada. Overall, consumption inequality has continually been lower in Atlantic Canada in comparison to the rest of Canada. The paper also examines the role of key socio-demographic factors using a decomposition methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a critical analysis of the paper "Canada's National Policies: Reflections on 125 Years," by Lorraine Eden and Maureen Appel Molot on various versions of national policies of Canada. The author critically analyses the terms national policy and nation building used in this paper. He further comments on the focus given by Molot and Eden on the theoretical market failure in the paper. He also argues on the transition from compensatory to market liberalism.

Copyright of Canadian Public Policy is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Public Policy is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Public Policy is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Public Policy is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Public Policy is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Public Policy is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Public Policy is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Public Policy is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Public Policy is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Public Policy is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Public Policy is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Public Policy is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Public Policy is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses the key issues regarding the Centre for the Study of Living Standards (CSLS) policies on increasing the economic well-being of Canadians that was presented through four papers. The first paper examines the impact of universities on the living standards in Canada. Labor and well-being are discussed in the second paper. The third paper tackles on the new social policy, based on the importance of human capital. The last paper focuses on adult benefits.

Copyright of Canadian Public Policy is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Public Policy is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Public Policy is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Public Policy is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Public Policy is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

How much might poor financial market returns affect the financial well-being of Canadian seniors? We compare three scenarios: if Canadian financial markets (a) never experienced the financial crisis of 2008 (i.e., continued on their pre-2008 path); (b) experienced the crisis and return to historical trends; or (c) enter a new low normal of depressed stock market returns and continued low interest rates. Using a population microsimulation model, we model the first order impacts-that is, before behavioural responses such as delayed retirement or increased savings-on the retirement income flows of Baby Boom retirees. While annual income from private savings of the median Canadian baby-boom senior drops by over half in the event of continuing low financial market returns, median financial welfare drops by only just over a fifth. Rising social transfers and stable income sources (such as Canada/Quebec Pension Plan and implicit income from home ownership) partially shield Canadian seniors from financial market risk. Canadian research has long recognized that the Canadian social pension system protects poorer Canadian seniors from destitution. Our results indicate that it also helps shield the Canadian elderly population as a whole from financial market risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Public Policy is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Public Policy is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Self-reported life satisfaction is increasingly measured in government and private surveys around the world. In Canada, life satisfaction questions have not been asked in a consistent manner over time, but the accumulated set of data since 1985, along with recent surveys with repeated structure, now facilitates an analysis of regional changes. Those two and a half decades reveal a significant increase in life satisfaction in the province of Quebec as compared with the rest of Canada. The scale of this increase in well-being is comparable to the imputed effect of more than a trebling of mean household income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Public Policy is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Public Policy is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Public Policy is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Public Policy is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We study changes in time and money available to families with children from 1971 to 2006. Increases in incomes at the top of the Canadian income distribution since the mid-1990s have taken place without any significant increases in total family hours of paid work. On the other hand, for families in the middle of the income distribution, family income has stagnated, despite the fact that parents jointly supply significantly higher hours of paid work. If both time and money are valuable resources for the production of well-being for family members, these findings suggest that inequality in well-being has increased even more than inequality of income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the Canadian government's decision to eliminate the mandatory long form version of the census and instead offer a voluntary survey. It discusses the political issues related to the decision including citizens' right to privacy and the government's right to collect data. It examines economic issues related to the collection of census data and discusses the collection of census data in the United States, Great Britain and Western Europe. It also examines Statistics Canada's reputation for operating outside of political influence.

We compare the retirement prospects of immigrant men with their native-born counterparts. Using data from the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics, we estimate a significant gap of 43 percent in private pension income and 30 percent in private pension contributions between immigrants and the native born. The gap in public pension incomes is negligible and reduces the overall pension gap, but only partially. Furthermore, the pension income and contribution gap is significantly larger for more recently arrived immigrant cohorts, consistent with evidence of weaker earnings for this group. We provide age profiles of pension income and contributions and discuss problems in interpreting the results without adjusting for age. Controlling for age and earnings differences, immigrants are still about 11 percent less likely to make contributions to a private pension program, but there is no difference in the contribution rates out of earnings of those who contribute. Recently arrived immigrants are significantly less likely to make contributions to a private pension program and appear to be neglecting private pension contribution opportunities more than earlier immigrants and the native born, which may have adverse implications for Canada's public retirement programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the extent of the impact that direct tax subsidies (the 'push' effect) and the competitiveness of the production tax system (the 'pull' effect) have on research and development. A panel dataset of nine countries over nineteen years is used to estimate a dynamic fixed effects model of aggregate R&D. Both effects are significant and economically important. The short-run elasticity of R&D with respect to the push effect ranges from -0.12 to -0.22, while the long-run elasticity ranges from -0.46 to -0.83; the short-run elasticity of the pull effect ranges from -0.15 to -0.28, while the long-run elasticity ranges from -0.58 to -0.83. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a variant of the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition method, I find that outside Quebec, in both public and private sectors, the wage premium enjoyed by anglophones between 1970 and 2000 can be fully explained by a higher relative demand for English skills. However, I find that in Quebec's public sector between 1970 and 2000, francophones enjoyed a wage premium that may have reflected more than a higher relative demand for French skills, opening the possibility of discrimination as a factor. Such a premium also seems to have been present in Quebec's private sector in 2000. In particular, as was the case in 1970 for francophones, in 2000 anglophones in Quebec's private sector could not gain access to the market premium for the other language group by becoming bilingual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a general evaluative review of the report of the Expert Panel on Older Workers of July 2008. It is a balanced, clearly written report that emphasizes the importance of individual choice, flexible work arrangements, reduced barriers to employment of older workers, and regional mobility. But the report does not highlight the important gender dimension operating in retirement decisions and in older worker job displacements. The perspective of the report is that of labour economics, but it could have benefited from a more public economics perspective for guiding principles on job displacement issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between the substantial changes in tax and transfer programs and the movements in after-tax income inequality over the 1980s and 1990s. We show that in the 1980s, tax and transfer programs became more redistributive, offsetting substantial increases in market income inequality. In the 1990s, the tax and transfer system stopped undoing the increases in market income inequality, leading after-tax income inequality to rise. Even so, tax and transfer programs were more redistributive in 2000 than in the 1980s. Much of the changes occurred at the provincial level, with social assistance payments first increasing (in the late 1980s) then decreasing (in the late 1990s) and with surtaxes on high-income earners being first imposed and subsequently removed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comprehensive land claims agreements are important tools for empowering Aboriginal peoples. A crucial part of these treaties is the certainty provision, which deals with the nature of Aboriginal rights and title once a treaty is signed. Up until 1986, the Crown insisted on one certainty formula for all treaties. After 1986, however, Aboriginal groups were able to negotiate alternatives to the original certainty provision. This paper seeks to explain why alternatives to the original certainty provision emerged after 1986. It suggests that government perceptions of policy failure, generated by Aboriginal opposition to the extinguishment clause, resulted in the Crown engaging in instrumental learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the child sample of Statistics Canada's 2001 Participation and Activity Limitations Survey to study the economic costs of caring for children with disabilities in Canada. Both explicit out-of-pocket expenditures and implicit costs in the form of foregone labour market opportunities are considered. Results indicate that, despite universal health insurance in Canada, a majority of families of children with disabilities incur significant economic costs. Additional financial support might be offered, particularly when the child's condition is severe, and costly therapy and specialized aids could be covered. Our results also support the need for respite as well as help in balancing work and caregiving for Canadian parents of children with disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at a further option which thus far appears not to have entered the debate on the long-standing issue of interprovincial barriers. Labelled the subnational World Trade Organization (WTO) approach, it is based on the simple idea of seeking the agreement of the Canadian provinces (and WTO members) to extend existing WTO disciplines to the provincial level. This implies that the principles of Most Favoured Nation and National Treatment, as well as of WTO dispute settlement, would apply directly to interprovincial trade in goods and services through the 1994 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and that the framework of the General Agreement on Trade and Services would allow for scheduling of commitments, including on labour mobility under mode 4. The Agreements on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures would also apply, as would all other WTO agreements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this paper is to identify the channels through which specialization in resource-intensive production had an impact on the performance of the aggregate Canadian economy over the 1970-2005 period. As a whole, the Canadian resource sector appears to have been making substantial direct and indirect contributions to aggregate economic performance since 1970, and we can find little evidence of strong or consistent crowding-out effects. There are, however, some important caveats. In particular, the significance of the resource sector's contributions was strongly influenced by the key role played by the energy extraction industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Legislation that prevents the hiring of temporary replacement workers during a work stoppage is controversial. "Anti-temporary replacement worker" legislation (ATR) or "anti-scab" legislation is currently in effect in Quebec and British Columbia and existed for a short period of time in Ontario. This paper uses variation over time (1978-2003) and across provinces to provide empirical evidence concerning the impact of ATR on work stoppages. The results show that ATR increases strike incidence and decreases strike length-both effects are statistically significant and substantial in magnitude. Incidence and length have opposing effects on days lost to work stoppages. Empirical results provide weak evidence that anti-scab legislation may increase days lost to work stoppages in the first two years after the legislation takes effect but no evidence that such legislation has a statistically significant effect on days lost when it has been in effect for more than two years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Public Policy is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Beginning by establishing the scale of the global burden of infectious diseases, this paper examines why Canada should intervene in this issue, the main incentives being self-interest, health as a human right, economic investment and productivity requirements, and security implications. It then goes on to outline several ways forward for Canadian action such as: donor and government coordination, effective and efficient use of aid, involvement of the private sector, and use of non-aid instruments. It ends by advocating that Canada can do more than it presently does to combat this burden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite attention to the impact of mental health issues on employment, little attention has been directed to Canadian policy regarding psychiatric disabilities, and how these policies influence workplace practices. This paper reviews federal Canadian disability policy related to work, using the lens of mental illness, to answer the following questions: • With regard to psychiatric disability, what are expected outcomes in the employment domain? • How is psychiatric disability defined and described? • How is the relationship between work and psychiatric disability developed? Notions about work and psychiatric disability found in federal policy documents, implications of these notions, and recommendations for future policy development are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By international standards, the level of educational attainment in Canada is exceptionally high, with the proportion of adult Canadians holding postsecondary educational certificates being more than twice the OECD average. This remarkable ranking is primarily the result of high participation in non-university postsecondary educational sectors: colleges, trades institutions, and other vocational educators. While the non-university postsecondary education (PSE) sector is clearly important in terms of both the quantity and the qualitative nature of human capital it produces, it has received very little attention in the academic literature, which has tended to focus on the outcomes of university graduates. This paper uses Census data from 1980 to 2000 to examine the evolution of the earnings premia to university, college, and trades education over a 20-year period of rapid economic change. Examining this evolution is a prerequisite to understanding the behaviour of participation in the various postsecondary education streams and to the appropriate conduct of educational and labour market policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors here argue that government policies helped to bring about a boom in the Canadian beef industry, but these policies also contributed to the industry's vulnerable structure, which then led to financial chaos with the discovery of BSE in Alberta in 2003. The paper describes the genesis of the problem, the impact of the discovery of BSE, the responses of the federal and provincial governments, and the exacerbating effects of protectionism in foreign markets. The authors highlight key changes that must occur if Canadian beef is to compete successfully in the international marketplace over the long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the well-being of all Canadians will be increased by policies that make it easier for individuals to smooth their labour supply more evenly over the life cycle. However, if working longer is to represent an improvement in individual well-being, it must be due to choice, not necessity. The past decade has seen a substantial increase in the lifetime risk exposure of Canadian workers. Since one must expect that this will increase the fraction of future cohorts who arrive at 65 without a private pension or appreciable retirement savings, welfare improving policies to even out labour supply over the life cycle should be complemented by reforms to Employment Insurance to help individuals even out income fluctuations during their working years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of rising disaster losses in recent years and predictions of a more hazardous natural environment in the future, many countries around the world are revising their policies for disaster management to incorporate a stronger emphasis on disaster mitigation and risk reduction. In this paper, we argue that Canada has not sufficiently integrated mitigation into disaster management and we discuss several barriers that impede progress in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]