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"Osons le savoir" by Robert Lacroix Just as Quebecers are being called upon from all sides to consider new ways of building the future — whether by the Parti québécois, with its “season of ideas,” or the Liberal government with its re-engineering — the rector of Université de Montréal, Robert Lacroix, recently put forward his own vision of the Quebec of tomorrow. In a speech made to the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal on May 18, he proposed that we transform Quebec into a society obsessed with knowledge, by investing in creativity, its “principal strategic advantage.” “In the years to come, let us be knowledge-freaks. That is where the future lies, not elsewhere.” "An Inuit way of knowing and the making of Nunavut" by Larry Simpson The February territorial elections in Nunavut were once more an occasion to point to the social and economic problems facing Canada’s newest territory. Though these difficulties are real, writes Larry Simpson, Nunavut is also “home to a very significant and positive experiment in culture and political affirmation.” It has been instrumental in bringing cohesion to Inuit and to the development of “Inuitness.” Simpson reviews recent policy developments in Nunavut and shows how traditional knowledge is being revisited to address current and future policy challenges, and how it is being used as the foundation of economic development and as a tool for the day-to-day government operations. But there will inevitably be contradictions in the emerging discourse, between it and its own historical antecedents, and between the cultural context and future directions. The manner in which Inuit will manage these tensions, concludes Simpson, is as important to their future as the manner in which they will deal with their social and economic difficulties. "Back to the future - the rear-view mirror provides glimpses of what lies ahead for income security in the 21st century" by Havi Echenberg Social policy is a child of the 20th century, and a continuum from one government — and one level of government — to the next. Support for the “deserving poor” was provided early in the last century, and the first federal subsidy of provincial pension plans as early as the 1920s, though the national pension architecture was not completed until 40 years later in the 1960s. Late 20th century initiatives included the Child Tax Benefit and the Child Tax Credit, capped by the Social Union Framework Agreement (SUFA) of 1999. Which brings us to the new century and the emerging paradigm of the “post-welfare state,” as well as social citizenship and the role of the family, and “what income security would look like if it is decided that families are the best vehicles for achieving social policy goals.” Ottawa social policy consultant and writer Havi Echenberg reviews social policy in the last century as prelude to the new one. "New century, new risks: the Marsh Report and the post-war welfare state in Canada" by Antonia Maioni The social rights of citizenship in Canada were first articulated in conceptual terms by the Report on Social Security for Canada in 1943. Chaired by McGill Principal F. Cyril James and named for research director Leonard Marsh, the report laid the foundations of the post-war social welfare state in Canada. Besides unemployment insurance and disability, Marsh also recommended paid maternity leave, a concept as visionary in its way as his proposal for national health insurance. Marsh’s “holistic view of social security,” writes the director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada, was one “that considered health as a central part of the welfare state, rather than a separate item and expense.” Sixty years later, Antonia Maioni suggests, “it is family risks that represent the biggest change” from the Marsh vision. “Lone-parent families, recomposed family structures, and Aboriginal families are of increasing concern, as are the challenges of demographic changes, fertility patterns, the needs of an aging population…and discussions of early childhood development and work-life balance.” All of which must be worked through in the governance framework of federal-provincial relations. "'In the national interest': a social policy agenda for a new century - restore cooperative federalism, modernize medicare, put children first" by Tom Kent Forty years ago, the author was one of the principal architects of the social policy framework of the Pearson years, including medicare and the Canada-Quebec Pension Plan, which endure to this day. Tom Kent suggests a return to the spirit of cooperative federalism, which enabled the critical domestic policy initiatives of the last century, as a pre-condition to creating a dynamic social policy agenda in the new century. It is time once again, he suggests, for federal and provincial governments to cooperate “in the national interest.” At the top of Kent’s list, a return to stable federal funding of health care. Once a 50-50 federal-provincial shared responsibility, federal funding has fallen to as low as 16 percent of health care, and should be restored to at least 25 percent. Then, children should be the priority for Canada’s social safety net. “Children are the beginning,” he writes. “The earlier in life people get comprehensive, preventive care, the less will be the incidence of sickness later. Modernizing medicare means more than prompter, more comprehensive care for sick adults. It also means giving new priority to well children.” Kent also suggests a youth-oriented immigration program to replenish Canada’s aging population, and a tax system that treats all receipts the same. "Social policy and the knowledge economy: new century, new paradigm" by Thomas J. Courchene The emerging societal order, characterized by the knowledge-based economy (KBE), is calling for a new and challenging social policy paradigm. Long-standing social priorities such as early childhood development, education and health have now become the drivers of information-era growth and competitiveness, especially in terms of research and innovation. Likewise, the factors propelling global city regions (GCRs) to the economic forefront in the KBE “are likely to be universities, health research centers and R&D labs on the one hand, and socio-cultural policies that accommodate the creative class on the other,” writes IRPP Senior Scholar Tom Courchene. Under the former resource-based model people migrated to where the jobs were, whereas in the KBE era businesses and jobs will cluster where the talent is. This is part and parcel of the 21st century social policy paradigm, the most exciting dimension of which is that investing in the development of citizens is the key to ensuring both social cohesion and economic competitiveness. "Relative poverty - it can't be erased, but it must be addressed, at home and abroad" by Hugh Segal Relative poverty is one of the most challenging dynamics of our times, writes the IRPP’s president. While poor Canadians may be better off than the poor of Africa or South America, they are still poor relative to their Canadian neighbours. Poverty in Africa and the Middle East, in the context of the AIDS pandemic and the intractable Israeli-Palestinian quarrel, is a major obstacle to political stability. In India, the poverty of hundreds of millions of non-participants in the country’s impressive economic growth played a major role in the unexpected resurgence of the Congress Party in the May elections. China, as it completes its transition from a command to a market economy, will face major income discrepancies between entrepreneurs and the poor. In Canada, Hugh Segal has long advocated a guaranteed annual income which, he writes, “is neither doctrinaire nor insouciant,” and would cost no more than “the billions now in circulation” on a wide range of social programs. "Choix politiques et solidarité sociale à l'heure de la mondialisation" by Keith G. Banting Over the past few years much as been written to warn about the impact of globalization on the future of the welfare state. Keith Banting takes stock of two forms of this argument: first, that globalization creates external constraints on our social choices; and second, that globalization exacerbates our domestic divisions and erodes the sense of solidarity among Canadians. He concludes that neither argument is very compelling. The social contract of the post-war period may be under attack, but this has less to do with globalization, says Banting, than with the financial impact of social and budgetary phenomena such as an aging population and the accumulated debt. Whether we choose to reinforce or to decrease the social role of the state will be in either case a political choice, not an economic necessity. "Health care markets and the health care guarantee: baking a better loaf, or baking enough bread?" by Paul Jacobson Health care is not a rational market, driven by supply and demand. Nor is it uniquely a consumer market, but a multi-faceted one, usually with doctors serving as gatekeepers, “mediating between the requirements of the patient and the capabilities of the system,” writes Toronto consulting economist Paul Jacobson. The system is susceptible to market failure in health care finance, provision and other issues. Unfortunately, health care fails all the tests of market efficiency, yet it is simplistic to suggest, as some analysts have, “that the delivery of health care should be no different than the delivery of bread.” Bakeries run on a supply and demand basis, and all customers are considered to “have the same need for bread.” Customers line up to buy bread, with no queue-jumping. However, the Kirby Committee’s proposal of a health care guarantee, allowing patients who exceed waiting limits to seek care in another jurisdiction at government expense, is an important policy proposal, equivalent to allowing the customer to buy bread elsewhere at higher prices if the government didn’t bake enough bread. With a shortage of both bakers and ovens, the result is competition for resources rather than an improved bread market. The same is true for health care. In Canada, we have a shortage of appropriate health care ovens and bakers. According to a 2003 OECD study, Canada has a comparative shortage of physicians, 2.1 per 1,000 population, compared to an OECD average of 2.9. "The 'other' health system: reflections on the dark side of the moon of health and health care in Canada" by Hugh Scott During the last decade, public discourse over the state of our health system has been alarming and calls for reforming what was described as an unsustainable situation have been frequent. In this article Hugh Scott, former executive director of the McGill University Health Centre, takes issue with this and argues that the situation is less catastrophic and more manageable than is often assumed. While annual health expenditures increased by $50 billion between 1993 and 2003, much of this increase is due to private spending. And more than half of this increase was spent on non-medicare components of health care expenditures. Governments, he concludes, are not at the mercy of unfathomable forces that would require greater reliance on private financing. "L'école à l'aube du XXIe siècle : retour vers le futur" by Louis LeVasseur and Maurice Tardif Taking as a backdrop the main trends affecting society such as globalization, developments in scientific and technical knowledge, moral individualism, pluralism and multiethnicity, Louis LeVasseur and Maurice Tardif explore the challenges confronting Quebec schools and the options available to them. They assess the implications of two recent reforms to the Quebec educational system — the first dealing with the transmission of knowledge, and the second with regulation of the system — and conclude that increasing commodification is jeopardizing the democratization of education, which was the basis of the reforms of the 1960s. “Of course,” they say, “socio-economic times have changed and factors outside education are causing social inequality. But as a result of the commodification process, the educational network, rather than resisting these factors of inequality or attempting to mitigate them, seems to be adding its own practices of inequality.” "Universities in the new millennium: heading toward a new culture" by Brian Flemming The Canadian system of post-secondary education of the late 20th century in which public money accounted for 50 to 80 percent of university budgets “is on its way to the dustbin of history,” writes Brian Flemming. The pressures brought about by the move in most professional schools toward the full-cost recovery model, in which institutions charge tuition fees that pay the entire cost of students’ educations, as well as the claim to special status by a handful of universities, are jeopardizing the equalization program upon which most Canadian universities currently depend. Add to this the constitutional division of powers that forces the federal government to intervene through indirect means such as unaccountable foundations, and you end up with a crisis situation. But some positives might come out of this, concludes Flemming. As soon as one institution goes all the way on the road of independence and moves away from reliance on the public purse, the long overdue debate on the shape of Canadian academy will begin. And the sooner the better, he says. "Access to degrees in the knowledge economy" by Dave Marshall Access to post-secondary education has always been a major concern in Canada, and if student fees are usually a main concern in this regard, Dave Marshall warns that strategies adopted by the provinces in recent years to try and respond to the increasing demand for degrees have fuelled an inflationary spiral that risks diminishing the value of certain credentials. Marshall reviews the causes and effects of this degree inflation and suggests that part of the answer lies with the process of degree accreditation, where in recent years several cracks appeared in the historical provincial degree-granting framework. “As long as individual provincial governments stayed mostly on the same page regarding degree-granting,” he concludes, “Canada has never felt the need to establish a national degree or institutional accreditation process. Consumers (parents, students, employers, graduate schools, professional schools), both here in Canada and elsewhere, are now suggesting otherwise.” "Time for plain talk about social policy" by William Watson [summary not available] Book Excerpt: The Olympics of television rights - building a billion dollar bonanza by Dick Pound In 1960, the year Dick Pound competed in the Rome Olympics on the Canadian swimming team, CBS paid less than $400,000 (all figures in $US) to broadcast the Summer Games to the United States. By the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal, ABC paid $25 million. By the mid-1980s, when Pound was in charge of negotiating television rights on behalf of the International Olympic Committee, ABC paid an astonishing $309 million for US rights to the 1988 Calgary Winter Games. By the mid- 1990s, NBC negotiated a $2.3 billion multi-games contract for Summer and Winter Games from 2000 through 2008. In this exclusive excerpt from Inside the Olympics, his memoir of his own Olympic journey, Pound tells the fascinating inside story of the bidding wars for US television rights, which have funded the IOC and provided a revenue base upon which host cities, including Athens this month, have built the costly infrastructure necessary to host the Olympics in the modern era. “This makes the Olympics unique as a sports event,” he writes, “the Games can pay for themselves.” "Gas prices, taxes, and other fixations" by Joseph Heath [summary not available] |
