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Decentralization and multiculturalism

By David Kilgour, M.P. Edmonton Southeast
Published in The Philippine Canadian Times, February-March 1997

Current political debate in Canada centres around the devolution of powers from the federal government to the provinces and the shifting of responsibility to the provinces for the management and funding for the program that had previously been the responsibility of the government in Ottawa. One important issue here is the place of multiculturalism programs in the context of such devolution, and what possible impact such a devolution could have on our official policy on multiculturalism across Canada.

I would maintain that cultural heterogeneity constitutes a very meaningful part of what Canada is today. The interaction of our many cultures has strengthened the soul of Canada and is an enriching element in our national character.

Denise Chong, author of The Concubine's Children, a finalist for the Governor General's literary award and a Canadian of Asian descent, shares thought on what it means to be a Canadian: "What sets Canadian society apart from others is that ours is an inclusive society … Canadian citizenship recognizes differences. It praises diversity. It is what we as Canadians choose to have in common with each other. It is a bridge between those who left something to make a new home here and those born here. What keeps the bridge strong is tolerance, fairness and compassion." She adds: "My own sense of being a Canadian is one of belonging. I belong to a community of values … The life I lead begins before and lingers after my time."

Ken Coates, a West Coast academic has written: "It means that we can proclaim proudly, joyously, that we live in one of the finest, most gentle, most caring, prosperous, progressive societies that has ever existed on this earth. Sadly, it also means that we will not proclaim this self evident truth and that we will, instead focus on our shortcomings and point to our continuing weaknesses. May it ever be thus for it is this ability to find fault that has driven our country to become what it is today."

Some current realities are dictating that a debate takes place regarding the priorities of Canadian society and how we will approach the new century.

Rebalancing Federation

Change appears badly needed in our federal-provincial legislative practices and the spending habits of our federal government. A national consensus now seems to exist that Ottawa should not use its federal spending power to impose its priorities and control ("The Kremlin Complex"). For some, decentralization is part of the solution to our national unity problems.

Professor Thomas Courchene, recognized as a leading expert in economics and the study of Canadian federalism, offered an interesting contribution here in his recent paper, Access: A convention on the Canadian Economic and Social Systems. He argues that our current approach to social programs, in which Ottawa unilaterally enforces national social standards, is no longer appropriate. Due to its repeated cuts to social transfers over the last decade, Ottawa is losing its fiscal and moral authority to enforce unilaterally its standards.

He adds that the federal government's failure to work in partnership with the provinces has resulted in a less integrated Canadian economy than is desirable. As an alternative to the current approach, he proposes an accord between Ottawa and the provincial governments that would clarify and redistribute powers between the two orders of government. Access calls for the provinces to resume sole control over the design and delivery of health, welfare and education, as well as over labour market training. The provinces, in turn, would commit themselves to removing all internal trade barriers, thus fully implementing the agreement on internal trade which they initiated in 1994 and have essentially ignored since.

Fighting its deficit/debt is already forcing Ottawa to reduce its cash transfers to the provinces. Last year, it transferred $18.3 billion; by 1997-98, it will decline to $12.5 billion. Courchene argues: "From this perspective Access acquires a quite different rationale, namely, how in the face of this decentralization do we maintain the integrity of our social and economic union?"

Courchene concludes: " Decentralization … is anything but a 'free lunch' for the provinces. For them, the challenge will be to show individual Canadians that they can take the national interest into consideration on their policies. Thus, in pursuing their own interests in the wake of their own increase in autonomy (but not in revenues), the provinces must be prepared, along with Ottawa, to play a much larger role in creating 'national' programs or national public goods. Potentially, this is a very much positive-sum game, since the post-war approach of relying on Ottawa to deliver the national component of policy is decidedly inferior to an approach that combines both vertical (top-down) and horizontal (bottom-up) coordination and integration. The underlying message is, nonetheless, clear: "if the provinces fail in this critical endeavor, Canadians almost certainly will demand that the pendulum of power swing back to the centre."

"National Standards"

In view of the federal government cuts to social program transfers, there seems to be growing resentment among at least some provinces, struggling to control their own deficits, towards Ottawa's insistence on maintaining national standards as Ottawa sees them.

There is however, a widespread and deep attachment among Canadians generally, including my own constituents, to the belief that, regardless of their place of residence, all of us should have access to approximately the same level of social services. Simultaneously, many Canadians are becoming more concerned that all national standards could become a victim of decentralization.

Roger Gibbins, chair of political science at the University of Calgary, asserts that proponents of decentralization maintain that national standards need not be federally imposed standards. Instead of enforcing them through acts of Parliament they could be imposed through intergovernmental agreements, which could, but not necessarily, include Ottawa. In fact provincial agreements have cooperated in the past. But would such arrangements maintain meaningful "national standards?" Gibbins believes that the very logic of decentralization works against interprovincially imposed national standards. At their August 1996 annual conference, all nine of the English-speaking premiers signed an agreement to work with the federal government on new "national guidelines," as opposed to "federal standards," for health and social programs.

Conclusion

Recently, 23 South African parliamentarians from seven political parties visited Ottawa to see how our parliamentary democracy functions. In a private conversation, one of them, who has lived in several countries, told me that South Africans look to Canada as a bilingual multicultural model that works.

"If ," he said, "you fragment, what hope is there for the rest of us around the world to stay together?"

By way of conclusion. it would appear to me that we are facing fundamental questions about the future character of Canadian society: Are we as a people prepared to decentralize legislative authority to the provinces, and to what degree are we prepared to undertake such a decentralization? Are we prepared to accommodate on this and other issues all the regions of Canada, including both the ‘have’ and the ‘have not’ provinces? Finally, what would the potential impact of decentralization be on the future funding of multicultural activities and programs in Canada? The debate surrounding these questions will determine the future character of our nation, and it is imperative for all segments of our society to participate in this debate.

 

 
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