The Emergence Of Social Security In Canada

This third edition of Dennis Guest's book provides the most complete and up-to-date history of social welfare in this country. Yet it also offers insights into the nuts and bolts of policy creation, and explodes recent myths that underlie the current residual approach to social policy, such as 'death by deficit' and 'the inevitable demise of the Canada Pension Plan.' The Emergence of Social Security in Canada is both an important historical resource and an engrossing tale in its own right, and it will be of great interest to anyone concerned about Canadian social policy.

This ninth phase of the International Social Security project, which studies the experiences of twelve developed countries, examines the effects of public pension reform on employment at older ages. In the past two decades, men’s labor force participation at older ages has increased, reversing a long-term pattern of decline; participation rates for older women have increased dramatically as well. While better health, more education, and changes in labor-supply behavior of married couples may have affected this trend, these factors alone cannot explain the magnitude of the employment increase or its large variation across countries. The studies in this volume explore how financial incentives to work at older ages have evolved as a result of public pension reforms since 1980 and how these changes have affected retirement behavior. Utilizing a common template to analyze the developments across countries, the findings suggest that social security reforms have strengthened the financial returns to working at older ages and that these enhanced financial incentives have contributed to the rise in late-life employment.

Report on Social Security for Canada, written in wartime, presented to Canadians a picture of a better life in the postwar world. It outlined what governments could do to ensure that all citizens could afford the food, clothing, and shelter necessary to participate fully in their community. Authored by Leonard Marsh for the wartime Federal Advisory Committee on Reconstruction, the report was the subject of enormous attention when it was presented to the House of Commons in March 1943. Drawing on the work of his mentor, William Beveridge, and of John Maynard Keynes, Marsh primarily recommended an employment program meant to ensure lower unemployment and higher incomes. His report also discussed family allowances to make certain that no child would go without, health care insurance, temporary assistance in case of illness, a pension plan, and various other social benefits related to maternity, disability, loss of employment, and death. Today Report on Social Security for Canada is seen as a foundational text for the Canadian social security system. In this edition Allan Moscovitch provides the historical context, an outline of Marsh’s accomplishments, and suggestions for how to enhance the welfare state and respond to the social needs of Canadians in the twenty-first century.

Textbook on the development of the welfare system and the social services in Canada - covers the ideology affecting social policy, the role of the community, social administration, the institutional framework, economic implications, social welfare research, etc., and includes a chronology of developments from 1900 to 1974. Bibliography pp. 221 to 231, references and statistical tables.