May 13, 2015
This paper outlines the focus of the Renewing Canada’s Social Architecture project – looking at the ways that Canada has changed and where our social policies and programs have failed to keep pace.
Our world has changed, our social policies and programs haven’t. Canada looks very different than it did a generation ago. Our society, economy and labour markets have been reshaped by demographic shifts, new economic realities, globalization, emerging technologies and changing culture and attitudes. Many of the core social programs and policies designed in the middle of the last century have not kept pace with these broader changes.
Introduced in the middle of the last century, public pensions, medicare and employment insurance were designed for a particular social and economic context ― low rates of female participation in the paid labour force and a labour market where someone with a high school education could get a stable, well-paying job with benefits. The labour market has shifted tremendously, with fewer people in the once “standard” forms of employment with stable hours, registered pensions and extended health benefits. Canada’s aging population presents challenges to retirement security, the health care system, and families ― now more likely to be dual-earner households ― that face additional stress caring for aging relatives.
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The purpose of this project is to support a conversation among policymakers and the public about the best ways to update Canada’s social architecture. Researchers from the Mowat Centre, Caledon Institute for Social Policy, Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity and Institute for Research on Public Policy have produced a series of papers exploring opportunities to strengthen Canada’s social architecture. Each of these contributions provides an overview of a particular policy issue and presents some potential short-term and long-term options for consideration.
Canada’s social architecture is at a crossroads: fundamental challenges have been neglected for too long in favour of short-term fixes, resulting in large gaps that now threaten the well-being and economic prosperity of Canadians. The renewal of these programs and policies should be a priority of all Canadians in the coming years, starting with the federal election this fall.
We use the term social architecture as short-hand for the broad array of social services, programs and benefits that provide insurance against risk and protection for the vulnerable in Canada.
These programs are based on the broadly-shared idea that every Canadian ought to be able to satisfy basic needs of housing, food and clothing; that they enjoy equality of opportunity; that the government ought to provide certain public and social goods; and that Canadians ought to pool risk collectively to more efficiently protect against risk of unemployment, disability, and sickness.
Social goods and services in Canada can be provided by one or more levels of government, employers, civil society organizations, or some combination of these.
Authors
Thomas Granofsky
Miles Corak
Sunil Johal
Noah Zon
Release Date
May 13, 2015
ISBN
978-1-77259-003-6