Intergonvernmental relations, social policy and federal tranfers after Romanow
By: MCINTOSH, Tom
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Material type: 
ArticlePublisher: Toronto : IPAC, Spring 2004Canadian Public Administration : the journal of the Institute of Public Administration of Canada 47, 1, p. 27-51Abstract: This paper explores the new and old intergovernmental dynamics around federal transfers to the provinces for health and social policy spending in the aftermath of the Romanow Report and the decision to split the Canada Health and Social Transfer (CHST) into its two component parts. Though the provinces have agreed to the split, the federal government undertook the allocation of the transfer to the new Canada Health Transfer and the Canada Social Transfer unilaterally. At the same time, the federal government has simultaneously been increasing its own social spending in areas of provincial jurisdiction in recent years. In response the provinces have been taking an increasing hard line towards Ottawas unilateral actions as demonstrated by the creation of the Council of the Federation and their focus on the so-called fiscal imbalance in the federation. These dynamics make the intergovernmental commitment to collaborative federalism ring somewhat hollow. The paper argues that the inability of both orders of government to take collaborative federalism and policy interdependence seriously poses significant threat not only to the health of the federation, but also to efforts to create healthy public policy
This paper explores the new and old intergovernmental dynamics around federal transfers to the provinces for health and social policy spending in the aftermath of the Romanow Report and the decision to split the Canada Health and Social Transfer (CHST) into its two component parts. Though the provinces have agreed to the split, the federal government undertook the allocation of the transfer to the new Canada Health Transfer and the Canada Social Transfer unilaterally. At the same time, the federal government has simultaneously been increasing its own social spending in areas of provincial jurisdiction in recent years. In response the provinces have been taking an increasing hard line towards Ottawas unilateral actions as demonstrated by the creation of the Council of the Federation and their focus on the so-called fiscal imbalance in the federation. These dynamics make the intergovernmental commitment to collaborative federalism ring somewhat hollow. The paper argues that the inability of both orders of government to take collaborative federalism and policy interdependence seriously poses significant threat not only to the health of the federation, but also to efforts to create healthy public policy
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