The New Federal Tool Belt: Attempts to Rebuild Social Policy Leadership.

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]