This thesis is a comparative case study of welfare reform in Alberta and British
Columbia in the 1990s. It explores the predominant pressures on the social assistance
systems emanating from the provincial, national and international arenas. It further
identifies and compares the policy response of each province to these pressures and the
consequences of the reforms for the respective governments and social assistance
communities. Lastly, it attempts to account for the major similarities and differences
between the two reformed welfare policies.
This thesis argues that while Alberta's and British Columbia's welfare reforms
share a number of notable similarities, they reflect fundamentally different models of
welfare provision: Alberta's reforms follow a market-enforcement model while British
Columbia's approximate a market-performance model. The similarities between the two
policies are best accounted for as reactions to parallel pressures on the two welfare
programs, specifically, rising welfare caseloads and program costs as well as the
changing debate around the merits of government social assistance programs.
Conversely, the differences between the two policies reflect the salience of distinctive
pressures on each welfare system. In Alberta reform was driven by the influence of
Alberta Family and Social Services Minister Mike Cardinal and the example of American
welfare reforms while in BC the reforms were initiated on account of federal policy
transformations and public perceptions of fraud.
Finally, this thesis suggests that the specific models of welfare provision chosen
in each case reflect the influence of each provinces' unique political context. The
political ideology of the governing party in both provinces was a significant factor in
determining the orientation of the reformed welfare policy. In Alberta the adoption of a
market-enforcement model was further facilitated by the province's longstanding
political culture while in British Columbia the influence of interest groups contributed to
the creation of a social assistance policy closely resembling a market-performance model.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/9756 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Nash, Adrienne J. |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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