Public Policy February 27, March 6, 13, 20, and 27

1. How to organize review of public policy?
1. Main areas of provincial jurisdiction?
2. Main areas of provincial expenditure?
3. General direction of policy?  Is there an overall ideological position reflected?
4. Types of policy? (e.g., distributive, redistributive, regulatory, public goods production?)
5. Comprehensive versus incremental?

2. Overlapping areas of substantive policy – economic policy, social policy, justice policy, general government
3. Was there a clear policy direction to the Harris government?  Comprehensive, economically neo-liberal, socially conservative restructuring and downsizing of the provincial public sector.
4. What questions can we ask about policy?
1. Scope – what is range of acceptable government action?
2. Means – what are the governing instruments employed?
3. Cui bono – who pays and who benefits from the distribution of public goods?
4. How is policy to be explained?

                                                              i.      Environment?

                                                            ii.      Power distribution?

                                                          iii.      Ideas?

                                                           iv.      Institutions?

                                                             v.      Process?

 “The Common Sense Revolution”

Comprehensive, economically neo-liberal, socially conservative restructuring and downsizing of the public sector

1. Prioritizes efficiency over equity
2. Prioritizes liberty (esp. of firms) over fairness (esp. for households)
3. Private ownership preferred to public; faith in largely unregulated market
4. “Night-watchman state” – role of state reduced to provision of basic security; social services reduced or privatized
5. State protection denied to socially unconventional
6. Personal responsibility prioritized over community support
7. The model for government is business
8. Believe government complexity can be reduced without loss of value
9. Deficit budgets believed caused by over-spending (waste) on social services
10. Tax cuts assumed to stimulate desirable economic growth (i.e., privately driven) better than government expenditure (publicly driven)

 Focus of Harris Government?

1. Cuts to income tax
2. Repeal of labour, employment equity laws
3. Restructuring of health, education, welfare, municipal government
4. Reduction in “red tape” environmental regulations

Health Policy

1. Constitutional context – S 92 of The Constitution Act 1867
2. Federal role through spending power – hospital insurance, national medicare
3. Federal standards for provincial health insurance
1. Comprehensive
2. Universal
3. Portable
4. Publicly provided
5. Accessible
4. Cost sharing arrangements from 50¢ dollars, through EPF, to CHST
5. Issues for Province
1. Cost containment
2. Balance between acute and chronic care
3. Geographical distribution of health care personnel, facilities
4. Hospitals, clinics, and home care
6. Recent history
1. Attempts to constrain physician incomes
2. Reductions of hospital budgets
3. Health care Restructuring Commission (Sinclair Commission) and hospital reorganization
4. Emergency room crowding
5. Cancer care waiting lists
6. Primary care reform?
7. Romanow Commission (federal) and the prospect of two-tier medicine

Education Policy

1. Constitutional context – Section 93 of the Constitution Act of 1867
2. Issues of school funding – constitutional and otherwise
3. Recurring Issues of Educational Policy
1. Language of instruction
2. Separate school funding
3. Funding responsibility – province or municipality
4. Current Issues of Educational Policy
1. Curriculum, standards, testing
2. Teacher training and testing
3. Role of school boards, parents councils  
4. School safety
5. Consequences of ending Grade XIII
5. Post-secondary education
1. Responsibility of province?
2. What proportion of costs from tuition?
3. Private post-secondary institutions?
4. Role of CAATs
5. Enrolment planning and demography

Social Welfare Policy

1. Constitutional background – “eleemosynary institutions” and “matters of a merely local or private nature” – English Poor Law: relief a matter of local responsibility
2. Impact of depression of 1930’s on provincial capacity for relief – unemployment insurance; Canada Assistance Plan; merger of CAP into CHST
3. Cost containment and rate reductions
4. Workfare
5. Beyond income support – social service institutions; child care subsidies; home care for the frail elderly and the disabled
6. An act for disabled Ontarians

Environment Policy

1. Constitutional background – “property and civil rights” as basis for regulation of industry, assessment of environmental impact of property uses
2. Issues
1. Urban sprawl and disappearing farmland
2. Environmental impact assessment
3. Acid precipitation
4. Water pollution (esp. mercury)
5. Toxic waste dumping
6. Waste management, recycling
7. Renewable resource maintenance
8. Municipal water quality (Walkerton)

Transportation policy

1. Constitutional background – “works within the province;” property and civil rights; municipal institutions
2. Issues
1. Provincial funding for highways, rapid transit?
2. Federal government role?
3. Private toll roads?
4. Truck traffic and auto traffic (movement of goods versus commuters and tourists)
5. Road safety, regulation of trucking
6. Mass transit versus highway development

Municipal Government

1. Constitutional background – municipalities are creatures of the province; can be reorganized at province’s will

2. Funding for urban government?  Mainly property tax, with some conditional grants from province.  Following move of half the cost of education to the provincial tax base, some further elements of public service shifted to municipalities

3. Issues
1. Amalgamations
2. Property tax reform (Current Value Assessment)
3. “Downloading”

Labour Policy

1. Constitutional background – property and civil rights

2. Role of province applies to workplaces and employment not governed by federal law (federal law covers, for example, airlines and railways, broadcasting networks, post office, federal employees)

3. Responsibilities
1. Regulation of labour standards
2. Regulation of labour relations
3. Occupational health and safety
4. Workers’ compensation

4. Issues
1. New labour standards law
2. Repeal of NDP’s Bill 40 and replacement with Bill 7
3. Reorganization of WCB into Workplace Safety and Insurance Board