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The progressive potential of municipal social policy: A case study of the struggle over welfare reform in Ottawa during the Common Sense Revolution by Richard Marquardt, BA.., M.P.A. A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Public Policy and Administration Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario July 2007 Copyright © 2007 Richard Marquardt Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Library and Bibliotheque et Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-33499-7 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-33499-7 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce,Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve,sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet,distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans loan, distribute and sell theses le monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non­ sur support microforme, papier, electronique commercial purposes, in microform,et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. this thesis. Neither the thesis Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels de nor substantial extracts from it celle-ci ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement may be printed or otherwise reproduits sans son autorisation. reproduced without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne Privacy Act some supporting sur la protection de la vie privee, forms may have been removed quelques formulaires secondaires from this thesis. ont ete enleves de cette these. While these forms may be includedBien que ces formulaires in the document page count, aient inclus dans la pagination, their removal does not represent il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant. any loss of content from the thesis. i * i Canada Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Abstract During the years of the Harris government’s Common Sense Revolution in Ontario, a struggle developed in Ottawa over the issue of welfare reform. On the surface, this conflict was between the municipality and the provincial government, but in the background was the larger context of federal social and economic policy, the neoliberal policy environment fostered by multilateral organizations, and resistance to neoliberalization by a number of social movements, notably the anti-poverty movement, the anti-globalization movement, and the labour movement. The outcome in Ottawa was a set of policies, programs, and working methods for social assistance that did not reflect the original workfarist aims of the Common Sense Revolution, but that also fell short, in several respects, of a fully progressive response to poverty in the city. This dissertation is a case study of that struggle and its outcome. The normative framework for the study explores the question of what it means to be “progressive” in the place, time, and policy field of focus. Amartya Sen’s concept of basic capability equality and Nancy Fraser’s concept of parity of participation are brought together to support the standard of sustainable livelihood as a norm for labour-market and welfare policy. The analytical framework draws upon both institutionalist and social movement literature to explain the achievements and the limitations of the central protagonists, the members of a local anti-poverty network with a presence both inside and outside the municipal government. ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The case study shows that a struggle at the local scale to achieve progressive social policy can be effective, even when it must move against regressive policy currents at other levels of government, and even when the municipal government is a creature of the provincial government, lacking any constitutional status. The case, however, also serves to demonstrate that social policy is a multi-scalar process. It identifies limits to what can be achieved by action in a single policy field and at the local scale in isolation, and thereby demonstrates the importance of building connections across sectors within the city as well as to other places, and of organizing for action at broader scales. iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Acknowledgements I wish to thank my thesis supervisor, Frances Abele, and my thesis committee members, Fran Klodawsky and Rianne Mahon, for their advice, encouragement, and above all for their patience as I made the zigzag odyssey toward completion of this dissertation. They were the perfect team, providing support when I asked for it, yet giving me the space to work out for myself the way to frame and analyze the case. During the years that I worked on this study, I was fortunate to participate in a reading group on the political economy of scale. Rianne Mahon and Caroline Andrew organized the group in 2002, and it is still meeting and discussing academic papers in 2007, renewed regularly with new members. The group is the ideal embodiment of what academe should be: a gathering of students and professors from the University of Ottawa and Carleton University who come together for no other purpose but learning (although the appeal of the outstanding snacks is an added inducement). It has been a privilege to be a participant. I also appreciated the support and encouragement of the members of the Centre for Labour and Community Research at Carleton, particularly Janet Siltanen and Wallace Clement, who gave me important feedback and advice at critical moments in the preparation of this thesis. Thanks, too, to the members of Carleton’s faculty who wrote hyperbolic references to support my application for a SSHRC doctoral grant. I am truly grateful to them and to the SSHRC for the time the grant gave me to work on this thesis. Many members of the faculty and staff of the School of Public Policy and Administration have made important contributions to my learning during the time that I have studied here. I would like to thank, in particular, Donald Swartz, who advised me in the early stages of thinking about this thesis, as well as Saul Schwartz, who gave me helpful feedback on several chapters and invited me to his classes to give presentations and receive commentary from his students. Iris Taylor was a constant source of information and support from the time I first applied to the program here until the day I delivered my thesis for examination. Nicki Enouy has been an efficient and helpful guide in the final stages of thesis production. From the start, I have wanted to work on a thesis with a focus on Ottawa, my hometown and the home, too, of Carleton University. Yet, like many Ottawans, I had not paid close attention to local issues. For many years, I had worked in the field of international development and knew more about Tanzania than I did about the city in which I lived. I iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. had little experience with the networks and institutions described in this thesis, and few contacts. I am, therefore, enormously grateful to the people who agreed to be interviewed for this study. I thank them for their generosity with their time, in many cases despite heavy workloads. My family deserves special thanks for their unquestioning support for the project of undertaking Ph. D. studies at this stage in my life. I thank my children, Sarah and James, for this emotional support. My friend, life partner, and wife, Kate McLaren, has never doubted that this was the right thing to do, or that I would complete it. I could not have done it without her support. This thesis is dedicated to her. v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements.................................................................................................iv List of Tables ...........................................................................................................ix List of Appendices...................................................................................................x Acronyms.................................................................................................................xi Chapter One: Introduction ....................................................................................1 Chapter Two: What is progressive? .................................................................. 19 2.0 Introduction.................................................................................................19 2.1 A normative framework.............................................................................24

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