Social Union Framework Agreement

The Social Union Framework Agreement (SUFA) was an agreement made in

mobility rights

and other rights.

Background

According to Professor Alain Noël, the idea of a Canadian "social union" was a "fairly recent" one at the time of his writing in 1998. It emerged in the 1990s to describe economic and social policies in Canada. However, Noël notes some politicians and academics believed the social union in Canada was older, having been established at Canadian Confederation or after World War II.^[1]

Entrenching a social union into the

New Democratic Party of Ontario. The social charter emphasized having common standards of social programs across Canada.^[1] Prime Minister Chrétien, coming to power in 1993, was not interested in constitutional reform, but became interested in a social union to repair Canadian federalism after the 1995 Quebec referendum on sovereignty.^[1]

The Agreement

The agreement reached in 1999 recognized a number of principles and rights of Canadians, including common quality for social programs across Canada, and

Aboriginal peoples including self-government."^[2]

Under the Agreement, new cross-Canada social programs with federal financial support may also be established with the agreement of the federal government and a majority of the provincial governments. As scholar Jennifer Smith notes, "There is no additional requirement of a population minimum" of the provinces supporting the programs. While theoretically the federal government could easily achieve new programs by appealing to "poorer provinces", particularly in Atlantic Canada, Smith notes that this view "assumes... that the poorer provinces are indiscriminate program takers."^[3]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Alain Noël, "The Three Social Unions," tr. Geoffrey Hale, Policy Options 19:9, November 1998, pp. 26-29.
^ Government of Canada, Social Union, News Release, "A Framework to Improve the Social Union for Canadians: An Agreement between the Government of Canada and the Governments of the Provinces and Territories, February 4, 1999," URL accessed 20 December 2006.
^ Jennifer Smith, "Informal Constitutional Development: Change by Other Means," Canadian Federalism: Performance, Effectiveness, and Legitimacy, eds. Herman Bakvis and Grace Skogstad, Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford University Press, 2002, pp. 50-51.

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Background

The Agreement

References

Further reading