Devolution in Canada
Devolution in Canada refers to the transfer of powers and responsibilities from the federal government to provincial and territorial governments. This process allows regions to have more control over areas such as natural resources, education, and healthcare. Devolution has led to greater autonomy and decision-making power for provinces and territories within the Canadian federation.
4 Key excerpts on "Devolution in Canada"
eBook - ePubConstitutional Politics and the Territorial Question in Canada and the United Kingdom
Federalism and Devolution Compared
- Michael Keating, Guy Laforest, Michael Keating, Guy Laforest(Authors)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Palgrave Macmillan(Publisher)
...There are, moreover, no equivalents of those federal departments in Ottawa, which cover provincial competences. In important fields like health, environment and agriculture, there are no UK departments, only departments for the four component nations. Canadian provinces, unlike the UK devolved territories, have had significant tax powers, giving them a wide scope for setting their own policies. The initial design for UK devolution left almost all tax powers at the centre. Now devolved territories, with Scotland in the lead, are gaining their own independent sources of revenue. One significant difference does remain, however, in that devolution in the United Kingdom applies only to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, with England, accounting for 85% of the population, ruled directly from the centre. Proposals for the government of England ’s city regions have been called devolution but this is a misnomer as they do not have the same federalizing logic. The result is that federalism is a more significant element in Canadian state-wide politics than in those of the UK, where devolved concerns are easily overlooked in London. If the UK is moving towards federalism, it is of an asymmetric type which Canada, in spite of demands from Quebec, has always rejected, apart some distinct competences in matters like immigration (Paquet 2016). Federalism and devolution address range of issues in the design of government. The first is the recognition and expression of national diversity in plurinational states, in which more than one national group exists and demands recognition. The United Kingdom is an explicitly multinational union, in which national communities are recognized in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland (formerly all Ireland). Canada has long been seen by some as a bargain among two founding peoples, previously seen as English and French-speaking but latterly between ‘ English Canada’ and Quebec...
eBook - ePubThe Theory, Practice and Potential of Regional Development
The Case of Canada
- Kelly Vodden, David Douglas, Sean Markey, Sarah Minnes, Bill Reimer, Kelly Vodden, David J.A. Douglas, Sean Markey, Sarah Minnes, Bill Reimer(Authors)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...By providing provinces with the right of control over language, culture, education, health, and welfare in addition to natural resources, related social conflicts were managed by their institutionalization (Jackson, 1975), but it ensured that they would forever come under negotiation when territorial concerns occurred. As a result, regional issues became a part of the Canadian Constitution – with an initial focus on provinces, managing fiscal inequities, language, and natural resources. All of these issues involved territorial points of reference and structured the preoccupation with regional development. 3 Eras of development: a national framework Our analysis begins with an examination of national-level regional development policies, their core themes, and the points at which we can observe relatively sharp shifts in policy direction. We identify four eras of relative stability during which federal regional development-related policies were fairly constant, and three shifts when major challenges emerged that transformed the policy orientation (see Figure 2.1). In some cases, the crises driving the shift were external to the policies, while in others they were largely generated by the limitations of the policy regimes themselves. Figure 2.1 National eras and periods of crisis We acknowledge that these phases are not exclusive, often overlap, and that there are other ways of dividing the temporal markers of different policy eras. However, our framework corresponds to critical phases of impact on regional development and restructuring at the federal level, as reflected in an extensive analysis of the Canadian regional development literature (see Sections 3.1 –3.5). Using an examination of the literature, we identify phases and shifts that best represent the majority of those materials – recognizing that the results will be approximate at best...
eBook - ePubThe Constitution of Canada
A Contextual Analysis
- Jeremy Webber(Author)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Hart Publishing(Publisher)
...This entitlement to make laws is not merely a matter of delegation from a single central authority. The federal and provincial levels are sovereign in their spheres of action. The federal structure also determines the arenas of Canadians’ political engagement. For some subjects, the province is citizens’ relevant political community; for others, Canada as a whole is their community. Canadians’ exercise of democratic self-government is therefore divided, pursued either within the province or at the level of Canada as a whole, depending on the subject matter. It is that division – the division of powers between Ottawa and the provinces – that forms the focus of this chapter. They are the only levels that have a constitutionally-entrenched status (although Indigenous governments that are recognized by treaty, including Nunavut, benefit from their treaties’ constitutional recognition; see chapter 8). Municipalities, including Canada’s largest cities, exercise their powers under delegation from the provinces. The territories exercise theirs under delegation from the federal Parliament. They are creatures of the legislature that created them; their powers can be limited, overridden, or abrogated entirely (subject, in the case of Nunavut, to the treaty). 2 We saw, in chapter 2, the evolution of the federal and provincial jurisdictions up to the postwar era. In this chapter, we examine the contemporary jurisprudence with respect to these powers. We start with a number of contrasting visions of Canada’s federal character – visions that have shaped Canada’s constitutional debates and conditioned the interpretation of Canadian federalism. I. VISIONS OF THE CANADIAN FEDERATION A. Canada as a Quasi - Federation There was some doubt, in the early years, about the very status of the Canadian federation...
eBook - ePub- Montserrat Guibernau(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Polity(Publisher)
...In Quebec the pro-independence movement supports ‘sovereignty and partnership’ with Canada. In Scotland and Wales political parties standing for greater autonomy obtain larger support than those advocating outright independence. A radically different scenario exists in Northern Ireland, where the two successive suspensions of the Stormont assembly since its re-establishment in 1997 reveal the profound difficulties of power-sharing within a divided society marked by many years of hatred, discrimination and violence. The cases considered confirm that devolution does not fully satisfy self-determination claims, but it does tend to weaken them. It locks regional movements and political parties into a dynamic which involves an almost permanent tension with the central state generally grounded on ongoing demands for greater autonomy and recognition. Yet, devolution also entitles national minorities to enjoy substantial powers. In my view, the following are some of the outcomes of devolution which contribute towards explaining its deterrent power against secession. 1 The creation of devolved institutions – parliaments, assemblies, provincial governments, etc. – contributes to the dynamism of civil society for two main reasons. First, it requires the reallocation of resources to facilitate discrete policies and regional budget planning. These processes, in turn, contribute to revitalizing civil society, encouraging local and regional initiatives including cultural, economic and social projects. Second, among other endeavours, devolved institutions tend to promote regional businesses, restore and preserve the regional heritage, and create regional cultural networks such as universities, museums and libraries...
