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Success of Canadian Welfare Reforms

Welfare dependency in Canada peaked in March 1994, when 3.1 million Canadians were receiving welfare.

From March 1995 to March 2005, the number of welfare beneficiaries (including children) across Canada decreased from just over three million to 1,7 million.
[Source: National Council of Welfare statistics, 1995-2005 (PDF - 137K, 1 page)]

So Canadian welfare reforms have been successful, right?

It depends on whether you're asking the Finance Department and Fraser Institute types, who interpret reductions in welfare caseloads and program costs as significant measures of success, or the social advocacy groups, who focus more on the human condition, income and wealth inequality and social justice...

Related Links:
(the view from the other side...)

* Campaign 2000
- child poverty report cards for Canada and selected provinces

* National Council of Welfare
- authoritative source of reports and statistics on poverty and welfare in Canada

* Canada Without Poverty
- formerly the National Anti-Poverty Organization (NAPO)

* Citizens for Public Justice
- faith-based NGO promoting a guaranteed annual income in Canada

* Dignity for All
- the campaign for a poverty free Canada

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Welfare reform in the U.S. - success or flop?

I thought I'd share the following excerpt from one of the presentations at the August 2008 Queen's University poverty agenda conference. It's a commentary on the relative success of American welfare reforms since Bill Clinton declared "the end of welfare as we know it" in the mid-1990s, but it reflects the view of many social advocates about the impact of welfare reforms in Canada since 1996.

"Both the Democrats and Republicans seek to take credit for the “success” of welfare reform. But the reduction of the rolls is a misleading indicator. Many potential recipients do not come onto the rolls even though they need assistance. The punitive approach has made welfare harder to access and less appealing as well. Further those who leave welfare for work on average make only about $7.50/hour in jobs that offer no medical insurance or pensions whatsoever. Many recipients remain poor years after leaving the rolls. The “welfare poor” are simply being replaced by the “working poor” in the new regime."

Source:
Neoliberal Poverty Governance: U.S. Welfare Policy in an Era of Globalization (PDF - 17K, 3 pages)
Presentation by Sanford F. Schram
Bryn Mawr College
Presentation at “The New Poverty Agenda: Reshaping Policies in the 21st Century”
Queen's University, International Institute on Social Policy
Kingston, Ontario, August 18-20, 2008

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Government expenditures on major social programs

Government transfer payments to persons
On this one table, you'll find the latest five years' worth of information on national expenditures (provincial stats available for a small fee) in the area of transfers to persons, which includes (among other programs):
* Family and youth allowances * Child tax benefit or credit * Pensions - First and Second World Wars * War veterans' allowances * Grants to aboriginal persons and organizations * Goods and services tax credit * Employment insurance benefits * Old Age Security Fund payments * Provincial Social assistance, income maintenance * Social assistance, other * Workers compensation benefits * Canada and Quebec Pension Plans.
NOTE: In case you're interested in province-level stats, click the "384-0009" link under 'Source' at the bottom of the table. There you can obtain more specialized CANSIM tables, including provincial tables, for a few dollars each. The "Find information related to this table" link (which is also at the bottom of the StatCan table) contains methodological notes and other related StatCan products, many of which are free of charge.
Source:
Statistics Canada

Legislation

Legislation woes?
It's very frustrating trying to keep up with legislative links in each jurisdiction - they keep changing the legislation, and they keep changing the links to that legislation.

If you can't find statutes and regulations for a specific Canadian jurisdiction, try these links:

Statutes and Regulations - includes links to all federal, provincial and territorial statues and regulations
Source:
LawNet Canada - formerly known as the Access to Justice Network (ACJNet).
The LawNet Canada website was launched January 12, 2011, along with LawNet Alberta and LawNet Français.

Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII)
- incl. over 100 links to federal, provincial and territorial courts (incl. supreme courts), as well as statutes and regulations for most jurisdictions.

Canadian Consolidated Statutes and Regulations - from the federal Department of Justice

See the Canadian Social Research Links Legislation Links page for links to other related sites.

Other Welfare Resources

You'll find a lot more welfare-related information on other Canadian Social Research Links pages. The most detailed information is in the provincial/territorial section (left column) of this site's Home Page - hundreds of government and NGO links, including reports and studies on many aspects of welfare in Canada. NGO links are either at the bottom of the government links for each jurisdiction or on a separate page (depending on the number of links for each jurisdiction).

For information on conditions of eligibility (including the financial nitty-gritty), administration (fraud controls, application review process) and benefit calculations, I'd recommend Provincial/Territorial Welfare Policy Manuals. Not all jurisdictions are online yet, and the amount and quality of content vary. If provincial government people are reading this, I'd like to recommend Manitoba as an excellent model for your manual.

Related pages on this site:
* Anti-Poverty Strategies and Campaigns:
--- Provincial and territorial
--- National and international
* Welfare Reforms in Canada*
* Canada Assistance Plan / Canada Health and Social Transfer / Canada Social Transfer Resources*
*include some content based on my experience as well as links to relevant sites and reports.

The "themes" section of this site (right column on the Home Page) - also includes more links to welfare information. The content of those pages is more chaotic than the government section, but I guarantee you'll find welfare links on every one of those pages.

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From the
Canadian Council on Social Development:

Poverty Reduction Policies and Programs
Social Development Report Series, 2009
Series Editor: Katherine Scott
May 2009
Fourteen authors discuss the ideas, interests and institutions that have shaped the evolution of poverty reduction policies and programs in Canada and the issues for each jurisdiction moving forward.

Recommended reading - includes detailed historical and contextual information on welfare and poverty reduction in each province and territory, along with an overview of the federal role in and contributions toward poverty reduction in Canada. For links to all reports, click the link above or go to the Anti-Poverty Strategies and Campaigns page of this website, where you'll find links to all 14 reports in this series + 900 more links to online content related to poverty reduction in Canada.

Source:
Canadian Council on Social Development

Related links:
- Go to the Anti-poverty Strategies and Campaigns page:
antipoverty.htm