Managing Interdependencies in the Canadian Federation: Lessons from the Social Union Framework Agreement

Abstract

Let’s begin by recalling that SUFA is mainly about the process of governing -- how governments should relate to one another and to citizens in the making of social policy. It has a section on principles and another on “mobility within Canada” (sections 1 and 2). Almost all of the rest is about how governments are to behave. Section 3, for instance, concentrates on “public accountability and transparency,” section 4 on governments “working in partnership for Canadians,” section 5 on the role of the “federal spending power,” and section 6 on “dispute avoidance and resolution.” Section 7 called for a review of the agreement and its implementation after three years (now completed).2 What has been SUFA’s impact? First, it has had little effect to date on the content of social policy. The main area of public debate in social policy in recent years has had to do with publicly insured health care (its funding, scope, quality and timeliness). I do not know of a single analyst outside of government who would argue that the intergovernmental content of the health accords reached by first ministers since 1999 have been significantly influenced by SUFA. An exception to this general point about the content of social policy has to do with mobility policy, where there seems to have been genuine progress in improving the ability of workers to move between provinces. But as already noted, mobility is the only policy issue dealt with directly by SUFA itself.