In 2006, the Conference Board of Canada hosted the CBIC Scholar-In-Residence Lecture Canada by Picasso: The faces of Federalism. Janice Gross Stein, Belzberg Professor of Conflict Management in the Department of Political Science and Director of the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto, was a contributor at this lecture, and emphasized the need for national standards.

In Chapter 1 of the conference report, Canada by Mondrian: Networked Federalism in an Era of Globalization, Stein argues that Canada’s attempt to match responsibilities and revenues neatly to the two orders of government is ineffective and doomed to failure. Stein believes that there is a need to think about federalism differently, and to strive for a new regime that is less defined, less concerned with jurisdictional rights, and much more focused on results.

Canada is among the most decentralized country in the world, it’s provinces are one of the world’s most autonomous, and yet Canada is riddled with conflict between provincial and federal governments. Provincial governments often complain that the federal government disposes of sources of revenue far greater than it needs, while provinces struggle to provide the basic services that Canadians want and need. This structural problem is what the provinces have come to call “fiscal imbalance.” The federal government responds to this by claiming that provinces need to be more fiscally responsible, and that they can always raise additional revenue by taxing more.

As a result, Canada is in desperate need of national standards – ones that will ensure that all Canadian have access to essential programs and services regardless of which jurisdiction or province they are from.

To download Stein’s chapter, click here:
Chapter 1

To download the complete conference report, click here:
Report