Three Essays on Social Assistance in Canada: a Multidisciplinary Focus on Ontario Singles

Three Essays on Social Assistance in Canada: A Multidisciplinary Focus on Ontario Singles by Nicholas Falvo A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Public Policy Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario © 2015 Nicholas Falvo ii Abstract A single employable adult relying on social assistance in Ontario receives approximately $7,500 annually on which to live. Yet, in spite of this very low amount, singles make up Ontario’s fastest growing household group on social assistance. In 2012, a review of the province’s social assistance system recommended an immediate $100 increase in monthly benefit levels for singles. All of this raises three key questions: 1) How did Ontario’s social assistance system develop into its current form? 2) What do social assistance recipients do with increased monthly benefits? 3) To what extent might increased benefit levels lead to higher caseloads? The present dissertation comprises three essays—each one looking to answer one of the above questions, and each with a different methodological approach. Each essay also has a different geographical focus: the first looks exclusively at Ontario; the second looks at Ontario’s welfare system while interviewing a sample of Toronto-based recipients; and the third looks at six provinces, including Ontario. In the first essay I gave consideration to the emergence and development of Ontario’s social assistance system. With the 1965-1975 period being its ultimate focus, I found that the Great Depression prompted senior levels of government in Canada to spend more on income assistance, and that the strength of Canada’s post-World War II economy made it more palatable for both the Canadian and Ontario governments to expand social assistance coverage and increase benefit levels. The 1965-75 period in Ontario makes for a useful case study, largely because it includes the passage of the Canada Assistance Plan and the initial period that followed. iii For the second essay, I conducted a series of interviews, over time, with 10 Toronto-based men on social assistance, asking each of them detailed questions about their monthly budgets. Five themes emerged from the research, and each theme forms the basis for a hypothesis that may be examined in future research. For the third essay, I undertook a regression analysis of determinants of social assistance caseloads for single employables across six Canadian provinces over the 1989- 2010 period. Results suggest that the determinant of singles caseloads in a given year with the highest amount of statistical significance is the previous year’s caseloads. What is more, of all the independent variables—and aside from the previous year’s caseload level—only British Columbia’s stricter administrative rules attain five percent significance or better. iv Acknowledgements I have been blessed with four excellent committee members. Allan Moscovitch, Patricia O’Campo, Saul Schwartz and Jim Stanford have all shown patience and thoughtfulness while sharing their deep knowledge with me. In addition to helping me with this thesis, Professor Moscovitch took me under his wing in Carleton’s School of Social Work, helping me develop a course on affordable housing and homelessness (and helping me teach Social Policy and Administration, his long time ‘baby’). I approached Dr. O’Campo out of the blue in 2009, from which point she gave very generously of her time, teaching me about population health research, qualitative approaches to research, grant-writing and research ethics boards. Professor Schwartz was the overall project supervisor; he helped me conceptualize the entire dissertation and he exerted just the right amount of pressure on me at all stages. Professor Schwartz also oversaw the writing of Essay 3. Jim Stanford was a major reason I started a PhD; and as a member of the committee, he has provided extremely helpful feedback throughout the writing process. Finally, though John Stapleton was not a formal member of my committee, his assistance was extremely helpful at various stages. My parents instilled in me a strong sense of social justice, urging me to think hard about ‘who gets what.’ They also insisted that I think critically, and they encouraged me to question authority. Each has been very supportive since the start of my doctoral studies. When I was a child, my father pushed me hard at school and always urged me to think of disenfranchised persons (even though I pretended not to listen to him). My mother led by example, working on the ‘front line’ with immigrants and refugees in my v hometown of Charlottetown; she was often the main source of social support for hundreds of people at any given time. Bruce Campbell inspired me to see the usefulness of critical public policy when I met him in 1997. He helped me understand that public policy could indeed help change the world. During 10 years of community work in Toronto, a great many individuals helped me ‘learn the ropes’ of front-line poverty work. They include Nick Saul, who helped me get my first job as a community worker, and Jim Ward, who inspired me to think about both academic and ‘on the ground’ work at the same time. They also include my excellent colleagues at Central Neighbourhood House, Dixon Hall, Homes First Society, Houselink Community Homes, Toronto Community Hostel and Street Health. They include Wendy Babcock, Peggy Birnberg, Barb Craig, Sandi Facciolo, Rosemary Hardwick, Arthur Manuel, Bruce McDougall and Jacqueline Power—all of whom left us far too young. And they include homeless and marginally-housed persons whom I really should not name, but who changed my life. Outside of the formal thesis-writing process, many individuals have played important roles in helping me learn and write about public policy. Before I began my PhD, George Fallis not only taught me a housing course at York University; he also agreed to teach me two independent reading courses. Steve Pomeroy deserves a medal for spending hundreds of hours mentoring me on affordable housing policy over the years. Professor Louis-Philippe Rochon re-taught me how to write an academic paper after I had been out of school for a decade; he also would not let me give up in the early parts of my doctoral journey. Prior to my doctoral studies, John Smithin answered vi (literally) hundreds of my questions about macroeconomic policy. Michael Buzzelli, Sean Gadon, Mario Seccareccia and Greg Suttor have also played important roles. Fellow students in my PhD program were very supportive as well. I especially wish to acknowledge David Wink, who, while studying social policy in my program, died very unexpectedly at age 30. His death often served as a reminder that I was lucky to still be a student. I wish to thank the fine people I had the privilege of working with for the three years I spent on the Executive of Carleton’s Graduate Students’ Association (Local 78 of the Canadian Federation of Students). I especially wish to acknowledge the work of Phil Robinson; he is the glue that has kept that organization so strong for so many years. I learned from great professors at Carleton, including Frances Abele, who has been my ‘northern policy mentor’ since 2009. And I benefitted enormously from staff in Carleton’s School of Public Policy, especially Nicole Gaertner. Martha Attridge Bufton, Frances Montgomery and Scott Turner provided extremely helpful library assistance. Scott Bennett, Peter Graefe, Hugh Shewell and Valerie Tarasuk helped as well, while Vincent St. Martin helped ensure I had a functioning computer at all stages. Essay 2 would not have been possible without invaluable cooperation from Stephen Hwang, Vicky Stergiopoulos, Gaye Hainsworth, Leslie MacDonald-Hicks, Joe Manion and his staff. Research participants taught me a great deal about poverty and budgeting. Simon Power, Frances Woolley and Chris Worswick encouraged me to use a quantitative approach to my third essay. Ashley Kearns and Sebastian Mott encouraged vii me to stick with statistics and helped me work with data in the early phases, while Richard Shillington and James Splinter helped take me to the next level. Ron Kneebone and Katherine White answered a vast array of questions pertaining to their own similar research. I would never have obtained administrative caseload data from provinces without invaluable assistance from Robert Bruce, Annie Lan, Blake McNeil, Billie-Jo Morrissette, Sheila Regehr, Fritz-Herbert Remarais, Dianne Richard, Gilles Séguin, Anne Tweddle and Jim Warren. Pierre Fortin, Seth Klein and David Leadbeater have also been helpful at different junctures. During and after the thesis defence, Therese Jennissen provided extremely helpful feedback. People close to me always did their best to keep me sane and remind me that there is more to life than a thesis. For this, I especially wish to thank Paige Galette. viii Table of Contents Title Page .................................................................................................................................... i Abstract ......................................................................................................................................ii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................... iv List of Tables ............................................................................................................................. x List of Figures .........................................................................................................................

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