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Canadian Federalism Uncovered: the Assumed, the Forgotten and the Unexamined in Collaborative Federalism

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Canadian Federalism Uncovered: the Assumed, the Forgotten and the Unexamined in Collaborative Federalism Canadian Federalism Uncovered: The Assumed, the Forgotten and the Unexamined in Collaborative Federalism Yulia Minaeva, Ph.D. Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies In partial fulfilment of the requirements For the Ph.D. degree in Public Administration School of Political Studies Faculty of Social Sciences University of Ottawa ©Yulia Minaeva, Ottawa, Canada, 2012 Abstract Canadian federalism has experienced pressure for change in recent years. By the end of the twentieth century, collaboration became the catch word and federations throughout the world, including Canada, witnessed an emergent movement toward collaborative governance, collaborative public service delivery, collaborative management and collaborative approaches to addressing social and economic issues. But even if the number of collaborative arrangements has grown since the 1990s, the understanding of the design, management and performance of collaborative arrangements in the Canadian federation remains weak. Accordingly, this dissertation argues that, in order to understand and open the black box of intergovernmental collaboration, it is necessary to put collaboration in a historical context and explore the roles of elites and political institutions in shaping intergovernmental collaborative practices. The role of the former provides the necessary complement of agency, while that of the latter represents a perspective that gives theoretical importance to political institutions. The integration of the two theoretical schools, elite theory and historical institutionalism, into one approach constitutes an attractive solution and offers the tools necessary to explore the complex processes of intergovernmental collaboration. The theoretical framework constructed in this dissertation is then applied to analyze whether the Agreement on Internal Trade, the Social Union Framework Agreement and the Council of the Federation can be considered in reality as examples of collaborative federalism. i Acknowledgements During the time of researching and writing this dissertation, I have incurred many intellectual and personal debts. I would like to express my sincere gratitude first to my direct supervisor Dr. Francois Rocher whose continuous support and willingness to share substantive expertise and knowledge about how to understand intergovernmental collaborative arrangements enabled me to accomplish this thesis. I must admit that collaborative federalism is a rather unusual subject for the student of public administration. As I undertook a major in public policy I was filled with passion to know more about it. I owe a special debt to Dr. Christian Rouillard, who never once doubted my ability to complete this work and provided me with valuable suggestions and the much needed guidance on my numerous revisions of this dissertation. His extra time and help has been greatly appreciated. Particular thanks to Dr. Genevieve Tellier for providing me with interesting ideas and sound recommendations. I am also forever indebted to Dr. Sharon Sutherland for her beautiful mind, mentoring and life coaching, help, sanity, sympathy and friendship. Most important, I want to acknowledge my gratitude to my family for support, encouragement, and bearing with me throughout this process. ii List of Tables Table 2.1. The types of relations between the federal and provincial governments and among the provincial governments.................................................................48 Table 4.1. Interprovincial and international trade flows in 2007 in millions of dollars.........75 Table 5.1. The multilateral agreements under the Social Union Framework Agreement....110 Table 5.2. Canada Social Transfer Cash Support in millions of dollars.............................. 111 Table 5.3. Increased Transfer Support for Health from 2004–05 to 2013–14 in millions of dollars....................................................................................................................111 Table 6.1. Results of the Council of the Federation’s activities by policy area.............163-164 Table 6.2. The Council of the Federation meetings timeline.........................................177-183 iii Table of Contents Introduction........................................................................................................................1–5 1. Literature Review......................................................................................................................................6 1.1. The Emergence of Collaborative Federalism.............................................................6–8 1.2. Defining Collaboration in Collaborative Federalism...............................................9–14 1.3. The Mechanism of Collaborative Federalism..............................................................14 1.3.1. The Institutions of Interstate Federalism.....................................................14–17 1.3.2. The Constitutional Division of Powers.......................................................17–19 1.4. The State of Knowledge on Collaborative Federalism...........................................19–25 2. Building the Theoretical Framework: Elite Analysis and Historic Institutionalism..26 2.1. Elite Analysis: Power and Interests........................................................................26–34 2.2. Historical Institutionalism: Structuring Collaborative Federalism.........................34–40 2.3. The Types of Federal-Provincial Relations............................................................40–52 2.4. Methodology...........................................................................................................52–55 3. The Changing Role of the Provincial and Federal Governments in the Canadian Federation.........................................................................................56-57 3.1. The Changing Status of Quebec in the Federation: The Quiet Revolution............58–60 3.2. Strengthening the Role of the Federal Government: The Canadian Nation-Building Project..........................................................................................60–62 3.3. Constitutional Negotiations and the Emergence of a New Era of Collaborative Federalism........................................................................................62–70 4. The Agreement on Internal Trade...................................................................................71 4.1. The Context: An Adjustment to the Era of Trade Liberalism................................71–73 4.2. The Content of the Agreement on Internal Trade...................................................73–75 4.3. The Agreement on Internal Trade: An Example of Collaborative Federalism?...........75 4.3.1. Authority and Power: Negative and Positive Economic Integration............75–81 iv 4.3.2. Resources: Mobilizing Electoral Support and Tapping Into Technical Capabilities.............................................................81–86 4.3.3. Activities and Provision of Services: The Rising Dynamics of Interprovincialism....................................................................................86–95 4.3.4. Information Sharing: The Institutionalization of Internal Trade................95–105 5. The Social Union Framework Agreement....................................................................106 5.1. The Context: The Quest for the Renewal and Modernization of Canada’s Social Union.......................................................................................106–108 5.2. The Content of the Social Union Framework Agreement..................................108–112 5.3. The SUFA: An Example of Collaborative Federalism?.............................................112 5.3.1. Authority and Power: Circumscribing the Federal Spending Power.......112–121 5.3.2. Resources: Return of the Federal Orthodoxy...........................................122–127 5.3.3. Activities and Provision of Services: A Reality Check...................................127 5.3.3.1. The 2004 Split of the Canada Health and Social Transfer.........128–131 5.3.3.2. The National Wait Time Reduction Strategy.............................131–134 5.3.3.3. The Universal Child Care Benefit..............................................134–137 5.3.4. Information sharing: Institutionalizing the SUFA....................................138–146 6. The Council of the Federation.......................................................................................147 6.1. The Context: Creating a Unified Front...............................................................147–149 6.2. The Content of the Founding Agreement............................................................149-151 6.3. The Council of the Federation: An Example of Collaborative Federalism?..............151 6.3.1. Authority and Power: Power Sharing in the Decision-making Process....151-152 6.3.1.1. The Case of Vertical Fiscal Imbalance........................................152–157 6.3.2. Resources: Quebec’s Drive for a Leadership Role ..................................157–162 6.3.3. Activities and Provision of Services: Delivering on Joint Agenda..........162–166 6.3.3.1. The Case of International Trade..................................................166–172 6.3.4. Information Sharing: Structuring the Political Forum..............................172–183 Conclusion.....................................................................................................................184-194 References............................................................................................................................195
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