The Social Safety Net: Equalization and Federalism

Following the Second World War, successive Canadian governments demonstrated a commitment to the premise that all Canadians were entitled to a set of "equal" services.

• Neither personal wealth nor geography would "deprive" Canadians from equality of opportunity and well-being.

In early 1944, King's Liberals revealed the specifics of their postwar program for reconstruction and social welfare reform.

• A number of the programs had previously been advocated by the C.C.F., then enjoying considerable public support.
• The cornerstone of the program was the establishment of family allowances.
• To meet postwar priorities, three new government departments were created - National Health and Welfare, Reconstruction, and Veterans' Affairs.
• Accompanying the reorganization was a series of measures that provided for veterans' housing and rehabilitation, farm product subsidies, and insurance for overseas exports.
• King's Liberals won the 1945 federal election.

As not all regions of the nation had the financial means to provide comparable services such as education or health care, the federal government had to reach agreement with the provinces to ensure that the citizens of all regions received the same level of services and benefits.

The less-affluent provinces tended to welcome Ottawa's intervention. However, federal expansion of the social and economic activities into areas of provincial jurisdiction was not universally applauded.

• In 1947, Ottawa released the "Green Book" that defined the goals and role of the federal government in maintaining national economic and social well-being.
• Both Ontario and Quebec saw the Green Book as an attempt by the federal government to centralize power and destroy provincial autonomy. Their opposition led the federal government to shelve its proposals.

There were, however, some agreements between the two levels of government.

• In 1951, a constitutional amendment permitted the federal government to offer old age pensions.
• In 1957, the Hospital Insurance and Diagnostic Services Act committed the federal government to paying fifty percent of the cost of provincial hospital insurance plans.

Both federal Liberal and Conservative governments during the 1950s and 1960s continued to follow interventionist policies.

• John Diefenbaker's Conservative government attempted to equalize prosperity by reducing regional disparities. The Agricultural and Rural Development Act, which sponsored a number of shared-cost programs, had the goal of increasing rural incomes.
• The government provided substantial funding for secondary technical education, and for training and upgrading unemployed adults.

The 1960s were the most expansionary period in the history of the Canadian welfare state.

• The commitment to the welfare state was articulated in the 1963 Liberal election promise to support a national health care plan, a minimum wage law, a forty-hour week, a two-price system for wheat, and portable old age pensions.
• The Liberals, led by Lester Pearson, won the 1963 federal election.
• The Canadian Pension Plan, Medicare, the Canada Assistance Plan, and the Guaranteed Income Supplement were enacted in that decade.