Law and Public Policy

D13(b) - Provincial Policy Making

Date: Jun 4 | Time: 01:45pm to 03:15pm | Location:

Chair/Président/Présidente : Lydia Miljan (University of Windsor)

Discussant/Commentateur/Commentatrice : Lydia Miljan (University of Windsor)

Revisiting the Secularization Story: A Comparative Analysis of Catholic Hospitals in Québec and Newfoundland: Élisabeth Sirois (University of Ottawa), Amélie Barras (York University), Andrea Paras (University of Guelph)
Abstract: Even though secularization has often been imagined as a linear and clear-cut trajectory in Canada, our paper draws on original archival work and document analysis to offer a more complex picture. Our paper also challenges the trope that describes Quebec’s secularization as different than the one in the rest of Canada (RoC). To do so, we explore two case studies. First, we document how, despite the laïcisation of the Quebec’s healthcare system during the 1960s Révolution Tranquille, the Augustine Sisters retained ownership of Hôtel-Dieu in Quebec City up until 1995, when it was bought by the Ministry of Health and Social Services. The case demonstrates that the secularization of Quebec’s healthcare system was a gradual and a decades-long process that was influenced both by provincial politics and transformations in the Catholic church. In the second case of St. Clare’s Mercy Hospital in St. John’s, Newfoundland, it was the Sisters of Mercy who initiated the hospital’s transfer of ownership to the Provincial Health Authority in 1990s, with the guarantee that the Catholic identity would be preserved, By juxtaposing these case studies, the paper suggests that it is more productive to approach secularization as a process than a fait accompli. It also builds a case for the importance of inter-provincial comparisons, as these reveal similarities in processes of secularization across Canada – similarities that are significant at a political moment where Quebec’s model of religious governance is constructed as intrinsically different than those in the RoC.

Unwilling Subjects, Everymen Rentiers, and Responsible Housing Providers: Tenants, Buy-to-Rent Investors, and Corporate Landlord Discursive Strategies in Provincial Policy changes: Yutaka Dirks (York University), Stefan Kipfer (York University)
Abstract: Interest in federal and provincial housing policy and spending has increased in the context of the rising housing ‘crisis’ (Kipfer & Sotomayor 2024) but less attention has been paid to landlord-tenant legislation, which can act to partially decommodify housing (Debrunner et al 2024). I analyze the changing policy demands articulated by tenants and tenant organizations and landlords (including both large, financialized corporations and small buy-to-rent landlords) using a case study of legislative changes to Ontario’s Residential Tenancies Act introduced by two different (Liberal and Progressive Conservative) provincial governments over a four-year period (2017-2020). Applying discourse analysis, I analyze tenants and landlords’ presentations in Ontario Legislature committee hearings into the Rental Fairness Act, 2017, the Restoring Trust, Transparency and Accountability Act, 2018 and the Protecting Tenants and Community Housing Act, 2020. I find that tenants, as ‘unwilling subjects of financialization’(Fields 2017) have developed a consciousness of their condition and advance arguments for policy intervention to mitigate financialization-driven accumulation by dispossession. Buy-to-rent landlords with small property portfolios and corporate landlords employ distinct narratives. While corporate landlord associations emphasize a ‘balance’ between tenants and landlords, the small buy-to-rent landlords characterize themselves as marginalized “hard-working everymen” (Hulse et al 2020; Grohmann 2021) and sought expanded rights or processes. The findings highlight the role of tenant organizations in developing counter-knowledges about macro-level housing policy and suggest an ‘aligned-accommodation’ (Waldron 2019) of large, corporate landlords and the sub-national state.

Mainstreaming disability in local housing policy processes: Tobin LeBlanc Haley (University of New Brunswick), Sarah Durelle (University of New Brunswick)
Abstract: Housing needs assessments (HNAs) have emerged as a key tool for housing policy and program planning among local governments in Canada (HART, n.d.). The popularity of HNAs is driven in large part by the reporting requirements of provincial and federal funding bodies. HNA methodologies can differ but generally rely on census data, data from other national surveys like the Canadian Housing Survey, and, sometimes, local administrative and qualitative data to assess the rate and distribution of core housing need and market conditions. The integration of HNAs into the local housing policy process is marked by noticeable neglect of the unique and diverse housing needs of people with disabilities. As a result, HNAs and the related policy process often perpetuate the long-standing trends of “absenting” (Michalko & Titchkosky, 2010; Beasley, 2019; Reno et al., 2021) disability from public space and discourse and/or treating disability as a monolithic, essentialized experience (Mingus, 2011 Goethals et al., 2015). To address the absenting and/or essentialist treatment of disability in HNAs (now informing housing policy-making across the country), this paper first provides a comparative scoping review of all HNAs in Canada’s census metropolitan areas. It then details a novel HNA methodology that can capture the unique housing needs of people with disabilities and support the mainstreaming of these needs into housing policy-making processes. This paper sits at the intersection of comparative public policy, local government studies, and disability studies.

Le développement des systèmes de garderies financées publiquement: le cas des provinces maritimes: Anne Lachance (Université de Moncton)
Abstract: Les comparaisons menées par l’OCDE et l'UNICEF montrent que le Canada a un système d’éducation plus performant et équitable que la moyenne des pays développés au primaire et au secondaire (UNICEF 2015; OCDE 2021). Cependant, les résultats sont moins bons au préscolaire, où le pays se classait au 22e rang en 2015 pour l’accès aux programmes éducatifs des enfants de cinq ans et moins (UNICEF 2015). Depuis 2021, le gouvernement fédéral a signé des ententes avec les dix provinces sur la création de systèmes de garderies financées publiquement. Ces garderies améliorent l’accès à l’éducation préscolaire. Toutefois, force est de constater que le développement de ces systèmes se fait de façon inégale. La disparité d’accès est frappante dans les provinces de l’Atlantique. À Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador et en Nouvelle-Écosse, seulement un quart des enfants de 0 à 5 ans avaient accès à une place en garderie à temps plein en 2023. Au Nouveau-Brunswick et à l’Île-du-Prince-Édouard, il s’agissait de plus de 40% (Child care Resources and Research Unit, 2023). Cette communication vise à comprendre les facteurs qui expliquent les différences entre les provinces maritimes dans l’accès à l’éducation préscolaire. Elle prend la forme d'études de cas, dans lesquelles l’autrice retrace le processus de développement des politiques d’éducation préscolaire dans les provinces maritimes. Elle explique que les différences sont le résultat de choix différents faits par les provinces, notamment au niveau de la rémunération des éducateurs et éducatrices. Les données analysées dans cette communication sont tirées de la recherche documentaire et d’entretiens semi-dirigés.

Rent Banks in Canada: a comparative analysis: Tobin LeBlanc Haley (University of New Brunswick), Laura Pin (Wilfrid Laurier University)
Abstract: With the affordability crisis in rental market housing in Canada there has been increased governmental interest in and funding for rent banks; non-profit organizations that offer interest-free loans or grants to tenant to stabilize their housing (Haley & Pin, 2024). However, there is little scholarly research on these programs. This paper analyzes and compares 2 provincial rent banks (BC and Manitoba) and 2 municipal rent banks (Toronto and London). We document the different histories and operations of the 4 rent banks and their effect on housing stabilization. We contextualize the organization and impact of each rent bank within their distinct provincial housing policy regimes. Data for this paper comes from 39 semi-structured interviews with rent bank clients and service providers, reviews of reports and internal policies from each rent bank, and an examination of provincial residential tenancy legislation and social housing policies. Through this paper, we address a persistent empirical gap related to rent banks in Canada and explain how and why variations in the structure of provincial housing policies have conditioned the responses of rent banks to the affordability crisis in the rental housing market. This paper draws on comparative public policy (White et al., 2009) and Canadian political economy (Vosko et al., 2019) and is set against the backdrop of the financialization of rental market housing (August, 2021) and the defunding and downloading of social housing by the federal government (and some provinces) that has characterized housing policy in Canada since the 1990s (Suttor, 2016).