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The Historical Development of Social Security in Canada

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Title: The Historical Development of Social Security in Canada


1
The Historical Development of Social Security in
Canada
  • Pol S 321
  • Lecture 2

2
Major Themes
3
Principles
  • Residual
  • Categorical
  • Conditional
  • Less eligibility (below minimum wage)

4
Residualism vs. Institutionalism
  • - development of alternatives for distributing
    income, goods, and services
  • common assumption in 19th and pre-1940s was that
    the family and private market provided relief
  • state-sponsored agencies were the last resort for
    relief, and then only on an emergency or
    temporary basis
  • concept of residualism

5
Major Themes (cont.)
  • the alternative to this viewpoint which was to
    develop during the post-WWII period is the
    institutional concept of welfare
  • result of the growing recognition of the risks
    associated with social organization in urban
    -industrial society, and the capacity of the
    state to mobilize to address these problems
  • society had an obligation to protect and
    compensate those individuals who bore the costs
    of industrial and urban modernization

6
Social Minimum
  • - realization that in a civilized society, there
    is a minimum of conditions necessary to have a
    chance in life
  • stems from concerns about child labour and
    minimum wages in Britain and surveys of poverty
    in major U.S. cities at the turn of the century.

7
Redefining Poverty
  • - sense that Canada was a land of opportunity of
    strong social security measures were not
    necessary
  • - lack of data to either support or refute
    perceptions of underlying social and economic
    condition
  • - changed by improved information and increased
    political salience

8
Participatory Democracy
  • - increasing public interest in social security
    programs
  • - increased benefits, especially those that are
    universal in nature have contributed to this
    increased interest
  • - issues of due process, fairness and
    accountability

9
Institutions Fed.-Prov. Relations
  • - strong central role originally envisioned for
    central government
  • - however, division of powers, judicial
    interpretation and political developments left
    provinces with responsibility for major areas
  • - incongruence between revenue-raising power and
    program responsibilities

10
Institutions Fed.-Prov. Relations
11
Historical Overview
12
Pre-Confederation
  • - Elizabethan Poor Law Tradition (1601)
  • assumption of public responsibility for relief of
    dependent poor, financed and administered by
    local governments
  • provide relief for the sick, old, or disabled
    (impotent poor) through almshouses (indoor
    relief) or homes (outdoor relief)
  • work for able-bodied poor and punishment
    (workhouses)

13
Pre-Confederation (cont.)
  • - Problems with Poor Law system
  • thinly-disguised slavery
  • cost led local governments to combine different
    categories of recipients into single institutions
    (I.e.. - sick, mentally ill, mentally challenged,
    children, tramps).
  • - legislation Nova Scotia 1763 New Brunswick
    1786

14
Pre-Confederation (cont.)
  • - Early Trends
  • small rural parishes in N.B.. contracted out to
    the lowest bidder
  • some areas held an annual auction of paupers
    (slavery)
  • by mid-19th C. public institutions in larger
    centres and outdoor relief
  • pre-1865 - almshouses served as hospitals

15
Pre-Confederation
  • - Upper Canada
  • 1792 legislation in U.C. didnt include poor law
    provisions (opposition to taxation and increased
    local govt power)
  • focus on private sector
  • jails were used as the initial catch-all
  • provincial asylum established in 1850
  • some public funds provided -destitute/sick

16
Pre-Confederation (cont.)
  • - Lower Canada
  • French Catholic tradition assigned primary role
    for health, education and welfare to the Church,
    not the state
  • facilities were built and operated by the Church
    and supplemented by weekly begging and donations
    from congregations

17
Pre-Confederation
  • - Western provinces
  • responsibility for provision of relief fell
    mainly to provincial governments except where
    local governments were organized

18
Post-Confederation
  • - factory system sprang into being almost
    overnight
  • - rapid urbanization
  • - Royal Commission (1887)
  • unanimous condemnation of certain aspects of the
    factory system 50-60 hr./wk. low pay workplace
    safety underemployment/unemployment

19
Working Conditions
  • - factory doors locked
  • - physical discipline of child workers
  • - financial penalties for sub-standard work,
    breakage, laughing and talking, or lateness
  • - industrial carnage loss of limbs

20
Conditions (cont.)
  • anti-unionism
  • attempts to establish unions were countered by
    blacklisting and intimidation
  • wage -discrimination against women
  • generally 50 that of men and insufficient to
    let them live independent of their family
  • poor housing conditions
  • poorly constructed
  • poor sanitation
  • exorbitant rents

21
Post-Confederation (cont.)
  • - Commission recommendation
  • federal govt establish an annuity system to
    allow workers to save for their old age
  • only recommendation acted upon was the creation
    of the proclamation of Labour Day

22
Social Minimum(cont.)
  • - Establishment of Social Minima
  • increased public concern
  • needs of employers to access cheap/trained labour
    force
  • concerns with public health
  • extension of the franchise
  • improved information on social conditions

23
Social Minimum(cont.)
  • - Education
  • access to cheap labour force and method of social
    control
  • 1850 - 1870s - primary education in Ontario,
    B.C., Manitoba and P.E.I., became free
  • free public libraries were fairly common by turn
    of the century

24
Social Minimum
  • - Health Care
  • ad hoc public health at local level to deal with
    emergencies
  • development of provincial health boards (Ontario,
    1882)
  • federal department in 1919

25
Take 15
26
Post-Confederation (cont.)
  • - Legislation
  • 1880-1886 seven bills introduced at federal level
    - none passed in part to pressure from some
    employers groups
  • - Extension of Franchise
  • 1920 - Dominion Elections Act granted universal
    suffrage to men and women in federal elections
    although natives and other visible minority
    groups were still out

27
Post-Confederation (cont.)
  • - improved research
  • Ames study - ordinary urban conditions within a
    square mile of Montreals working class district
    - 38,000 households (1897)
  • findings overcrowding definition of poverty
    line
  • modern analysis of the Ames study suggests that
    73 of working class lived at or below the
    poverty level of the day

28
Post-Confederation (cont.)
  • - Reform Movements
  • urban reform focused on public control of
    utilities improved sanitary conditions (city
    healthy) improved purity in government (city
    efficient) improved aesthetics efficiency in
    government (city beautiful)
  • social gospel movement Lords Day Act (1906)
    Social Service Council of Canada Govt
    Annuities Act (1908)

29
Post-Confederation (cont.)
  • - Legislation
  • Ontario
  • Factories Act and Employers Liability Act
    (1884/86)
  • est. safety requirements,limits to hours worked,
    and employment of children
  • weakened the legal defense os employers of
    assumed risk and negligence
  • Workmans Compensation Act (1914)
  • first piece of social insurance (see hand-out )

30
Post-Confederation (cont.)
  • Govt Annuities Act 1908
  • government operated annuities as a means of
    overcoming the inadeqaucies of the private market
  • Quebec - Workmens Comp. Act 1909
  • schedule of benefits payable provided negligence
    was not involved
  • not compulsory, contributory negligence upheld

31
Two Wars and a Depression
  • - Impact of WWI
  • rise of the political left due to growing social
    unrest
  • Winnipeg General Strike (1919), electoral
    successes of populist farm movements in elections
    at the provincial level, and election of 65
    progressives at the federal level in 1921
  • Mothers Pension Act passed in B.C. (1920)

32
War and Depression (cont.)
  • - Canadian Council on Child and Family
  • reviewed the act in 1931
  • residual attitude - better to punish deserting
    husbands, unmarried mothers give up children
  • led to a significant cutback in services

33
War and Depression
  • - 1920s (see handout)
  • establishment of federal health department in
    1919
  • minimum wage legislation
  • old age pension
  • family allowances

34
War and Depression (cont.)
  • - Depression
  • one-quarter of population unemployed by 1933 (15
    on relief)
  • pick and shovel make work projects
  • in-kind and voucher systems
  • relief was considered a local responsibility
  • federal support came in the form of annual
    emergency appropriations (40)

35
War and Depression (cont.)
  • - Depression
  • Unemployment Insurance Act (1935)
  • originally declared ultra -vires by the JCPC
  • Royal Commission on Fed/Prov. Relations
    recognized the emerging substantial roles of the
    provinces in social security without financial
    resourceslogic of federal role in income
    maintenance concept of national minimum of
    social services

36
War and Depression
  • - WWII
  • 1941 -committee on post-war reconstruction
  • Cassidy Report on Social Security (1943) called
    for a comprehensive social security system
    including a standard of living floor
    unemployment disability illness death
    training and placement

37
Role of Ideas
  • Keynesian Economics
  • Anyone who wanted to work could because full
    employment was the norm
  • If an extended period of unemployment emerged,
    governments could correct this by spending to
    stimulate the economy

38
Role if Ideas
  • Beveridge Report
  • - public assistance and means-tested aid could
    be eliminated through comprehensive social
    security
  • Universal health service, universal childrens
    allowance, comprehensve social insurance to
    address life interruptions and maternatty and
    funeral grants

39
Report on Social Security for Canada (Marsh
Report -1943)
  • - Derived from the Rowell-Sirois Commission
    (1937-1940)
  • - National employment and investment program to
    maintain full employment
  • - Expanded system of social insurance protection
    federally administered to protect workers from
    risks of income interruption
  • - Social insurance program to protect employed
    from universal risks, old age, permanent
    disability, death
  • -Comprehensive health insurance including
    medical, dental, pharmaceuticals, optometrists,
    jointly financed and contributory
  • -Universal family allowances

40
Marsh Report
  • The genius of social assistance is that it
    enlists the direct support of the classes most
    likely to benefit, and enlists equally the
    participation and controlling influences of the
    state, at the same time as it avoids the evil of
    pauperization, and the undemocratic influence of
    excessive state philanthropy

41
Post-WWII
  • - 1950s and 1960s
  • Old Age Security Act (1951)
  • special provisions allowed Quebec to opt-out
  • Unemployment Assistance Act (1956)
  • CAP (1966)

42
The 1960s The Last Hurrah ?
  • - CAP (1966)
  • consolidation of all fed/prov programs based on
    means or needs tests into a single, comprehensive
    program for benefits to meet financial need
    regardless of cause (old age assistance, blind
    persons allowance, and disabled persons
    allowances, along with other single category
    programs)
  • services to allow maintenance of independence

43
CAP Continued
  • - 50/50 cost shared assistance for needy mothers
    and dependent children, homemaker services, home
    support, and other services for families in need,
    children in the care of welfare agencies,
    protective services for children, and adoptive
    services
  • - costs include basic requirements for
    food,shelter,clothing,fuel,utilities ...

44
Boy - The 60s was a generous time compared to
the 90s
  • - additional services covered homemakers
    services, home support and other family related
    services
  • - 1990 - Federal Government imposed a 5 ceiling
    on the annual growth rate of CAP contributions to
    the non-equalization receiving provinces
    (Ontario, Alberta and B.C.).

45
Movement Towards a GAI
  • - External Forces
  • oil crises (1973 and 1979)
  • slowed economic growth
  • increased size of labour force
  • - Internal Forces
  • impact of technological change (changes in
    employment patterns
  • emergence of working poor
  • focus on poverty

46
Movement Towards a GAI
  • - Reform of Unemployment Insurance Plan (1970-71)
  • attempt to reshape an existing program (to enrich
    and broaden the UI plan and introduce some
    principles of GAI
  • in essence - government proposed to make UI a
    near universal program and increase benefits from
    40 to 66
  • widening of eligibility to include childbirth and
    sickness, 65

47
Reform of UI
  • eligibility also extended to cover short term,
    intermittent, non-continuous workers
  • qualifying periods shortened to as 8 from 52
    weeks
  • benefit period extended from 36 to 51 weeks
  • extended benefits for high unemployment areas
  • costs of program were 3 X original estimates by
    1975

48
The Social Security Review (1973-1976)
  • - Working Paper on Social Security (1973) -five
    strategies employment (near-universal income for
    employment) social insurance(contributory as
    first line of defense) income supplementation
    (top-up of basic employment and social insurance)
    for unemployables employment and social services

49
Social Security Review
  • - principles good and successful social security
    depends on successful economic policy (near full
    employment) good and successful social security
    turns on an effective income support and
    supplementation system

50
The Ministers Meet
  • - The Plan was approved in principle, but never
    implemented because of misgivings from some
    provinces about the federal commitment to cover
    additional costs apprehension about support from
    provincial finance ministers and the uncertainty
    of the economy

51
Fallout from the Social Security Review
  • - no income supplementation plan was introduced
    for the working poor (beyond Family Allowance)
    and no GAI introduced
  • - however, Sask est. the family Income Plan
    (1974), Manitoba - Income Support Program (1980),
    Quebec, Income Supplement Program (1979), Feds -
    child Tax Credit (1978)

52
Shortcomings of the Review
  • - arbitrary and unilateral nature of federal
    decisions (lack of provincial consultation)
  • - recurring federal/provincial squabbling
  • - economic downturn

53
EPF This is the End
  • - Established Programs Financing Act (1977)
  • response to economic downturn, rising world oil
    prices and growing fed/prov friction
  • federal withdrawal from 50/50 cost shared
    arrangements for health and PSE
  • replaced by an unconditional block grant based on
    cash and tax transfers (13.5 points)
  • 86/871990 GNP -2, 89/90 GNP -3, 90/91 froze.

54
Child Benefit Program
  • Federal govt announced 600 million in 97 budget
  • National Child Benefit initiative launched in
    1998
  • Provinces have used the funding for different
    initiatives
  • feds add an additional 425 million in 1999

55
Source Gerald Boychuk, Reforming the Canadian
Social Assistance Complex The Provincial Welfare
States and Canadian Federalism, in Canada The
State of the Federation, 1994
56
http//prestationnationalepourenfants.ca/ncb/ncb_e
19.html
57
http//prestationnationalepourenfants.ca/ncb/ncb_e
19.html
58
(No Transcript)
59
Universal Child Care Benefit
  • The Universal Child Care Benefit provides
    financial assistance to Canadian families with
    young children. Parents receive 100 a month up
    to 1,200 a year for each child under six.
  • 250M each year to provinces and territories to
    support their priorities for child care spaces
  • a 25 per cent investment tax credit is available
    to eligible businesses that create new child care
    spaces in the workplace, to a maximum of 10,000
    per space created.

60
Summary
  • Residualism vs. institutionalism
  • Social minimum
  • Redefining poverty
  • Federalism
  • External events

61
Further Information
  • http//prestationnationalepourenfants.ca/ncb/libra
    ry1.shtml2002
  • http//www.sdc.gc.ca/en/gateways/nav/top_nav/progr
    am/isp.shtml
  • http//www.universalchildcare.ca/en/find_out/backg
    rounder.shtml
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