Welcome to the Social Policy Cafe!

The introductory edition where I explain what this is and what I hope to cover

Fraser Café, Ottawa, Ontario

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What in heck is a social policy café and what can you, as readers, expect? These are basic questions; while I suspect the answers will evolve over time, here are my initial thoughts.

It’s a virtual substitute for in-person conversations in actual physical cafés,; the image of such a café will be featured at the top of every edition of this newsletter. To respect pandemic restrictions and take advantage of the elimination of the physical vastness of our country, the Social Policy Café is a digital platform for presenting information about current social policies, programs and developments in Canada. Contextual information including key historical developments in Canada, developments in other countries, international frameworks and agreements, and the range of views on each topic, will be included. Where possible, jurisdictional challenges and comparison within Canada will also be addressed.

It is my hope that discussion with readers and among readers will take place using the comments functions available to us; if there is a strong wish to have wider discussion, other options will be considered, including virtual conversations, and even webinars and/or podcasts, as things evolve.

What is social policy anyway?

As a self-described “social policy wonk,” I am often asked “What is social policy anyway? Isn’t everything social?” Well, that’s part of what I love about social policy - everything IS social, or can be defined that way.

A broad international definition comes from the London School of Economics, and pretty much covers it all:

Social policy is concerned with the ways societies across the world meet human needs for security, education, work, health and wellbeing. Social policy addresses how states and societies respond to global challenges of social, demographic and economic change, and of poverty, migration and globalisation. Social policy analyses the different roles of: national governments, the family, civil society, the market, and international organisations in providing services and support across the life course from childhood to old age. These services and support include child and family support, schooling and education, housing and neighbourhood renewal, income maintenance and poverty reduction, unemployment support and training, pensions, health and social care. Social policy aims to identify and find ways of reducing inequalities in access to services and support between social groups defined by socio-economic status, race, ethnicity, migration status, gender, sexual orientation, disability and age, and between countries.

However, I have had to narrow it down, for my own sanity. As a historian, I turn to history to help determine how social policy was first conceived in a Canadian context.

In the early days of what is often called the “modern” welfare state, a 1941 report in the United Kingdom - the Beveridge report - identified policy and program areas to address major problems anticipated in post-World War II reconstruction: income security, work and employment, education, housing, and health. Few would argue that these are not “social policy” areas. These laid the groundwork for the programs that followed and formed the basis of the UK welfare focus.

Two years after this report, Canada’s Report on Social Security for Canada (often known as the Marsh report after author Leonard Marsh), added family needs, which might be understood as caregiving of both children and elders in a more modern context. That report called for programming that became the Canada Pension Plan, and its related disability benefit; Family Allowance, and Unemployment Insurance. These, or variations of them, continue to be key elements of social policy in Canada. They were the product of a rebalancing of responsibilities and authorities defined in the British North America Act (which is still part of the Canadian Constitution), highlighting the jurisdictional constraints in place then and those still in place now.

I recognize that each of these policy area exists in a broader context that could include human rights protections and environmental concerns, for example. However, they cover the territory I hope to explore in this newsletter.

In addition, both reports included discussions of instruments (social insurance, service delivery and direct cash transfers), and the role of then-existing for-profit and not-for-profit agencies already involved in these areas. These will provide fodder for future editions of the Social Policy Cafe. For now - c’mon in, and join me for the ride.

Some additional reading….

should you wish to explore the evolution of social policy in Canada. These are not recent, but as history, they remain accurate and valuable.

Peter Hicks, Social Policy in Canada - Looking Back, Looking Ahead, Working Paper 46, Queen’s University School of Policy Studies, November 2008.

Michael Prince, The Evolution of Social Policy in Canada and the Expression of Canada in Social Policy, Remarks to The Elder College Malaspina University College Speaker Series, March 1, 2008.