History of Social Work - Canadian History

Canadian History

In the 1700s Canada was heavily under the influence and authority of Great Britain. This meant that the government put into place laws, concerning welfare, such as the English Poor Laws which was first implemented in Britain. There was also a struggle with the principles of less eligibility and the perception of need. As a result, the poor were distinguished as two separate groups. First, the worthy poor which consisted of mostly children whom were in need of education and apprenticeship, but also included the aged, sick and disabled; they were to receive help by being sent to the poor houses. The second were the unworthy poor which consisted of those who were able to work, but were still unemployed. These unlucky individuals were deported to the workhouses to learn how to earn a keep and good work habits.

During the colonial era the responsibility of the poor went to the local governments which financed the relief through property tax revenue. In 1792 Upper Canada followed England’s footsteps and tried to move away from the poor laws and place the responsibility of the poor on voluntary charities, mainly the Roman Catholic Church.

In 1867, the British North America Act (BNA Act) was applied; it directed provincial governments to take responsibility for the welfare for their own provinces. At this time welfare was not seen as an important aspect of government, so there was not much help for those who were left to the ruling of the poor laws and municipalities. It was somewhat better for children as they were considered worthy poor, and were sent to the poor houses. Between this time to 1920 people were realizing how demeaning and humiliating the poor laws were and tried to move away from them in order to provide humane, practicable and inclusive programs. Although, because of the strong roots in Adam Smith’s “laissez-faire” economy Canadians debated the amount of support that would be obligatory of the government.

Before World War I the social service congress met in reaction to the industrialization of Canada. This led to the concern of the amount of poor and lack of sufficient, ongoing work. For all of their ambition they could not move on because of WWI. During and after WWI there were many family units that were becoming single parent families; due to the fact of fathers and husbands alike were going to war and the mother was staying at home. It was made clear that it would be better for the children to stay with the mother, so instead of moving the children away from their mother to an institution they were kept in their natural setting. This could not happen with the limited income the mother made, so it was legislated that single mothers’ could receive income security, the subsidy was not really enough to cover all the needs, but was a step in the right direction. It was first seen in Manitoba in 1916 and soon thereafter spread across Canada.

The Old Age Pensions Act was created in 1927 in response to the concern of how elderly people would care for themselves as well as the elderly of poor families. Although, this was a step in the right direction it was very hard to receive this support and the age to collect was 70 or higher, which at that time not many lived to be that old. It was also “means-tested” meaning that their yearly income had to be under a certain amount which was very low. Although, it took nine years for the Act to become national, it was a major step in getting the government involved on such an important commitment level.

In 1929 a survey showed that only two to four percent of the Canadian population were unemployed whereas in 1933 there was a sharp increase where the unemployed became nineteen to twenty-four percent. This period is referred to as the dirty thirties. This caused a lot of social and health problems, but also paved the way to public relief. The new modifications that occurred during this time did not suffice as municipal governments could not alone shoulder the cost which caused the federal government to pass the Unemployment Insurance Act of 1940. This was the first large-scale income security program.

After WWII there were many suggestions and ideas of how social welfare would and should be implemented in Canada. One of the most well-known was Leonard Marsh’s report, which was called, Report on Social Security for Canada proposed January 17, 1943. Today it is more commonly known as the Marsh Report. Marsh was a harsh critic of his own country; he pointed out that Canada was sadly lagging behind in its social welfare programs. He promoted an all-encompassing reform of how help would be given to the unemployed and children as well as social insurance, and social assistance. The underpinnings of these changes were to create a ‘social minimum’ or GAI. The point was so that no individual or family were so entrenched by poverty or circumstances that they could not help themselves. Along with this proposal he also advised a way to finance these programs---taxation and social insurance.

In 1944 the Family Allowances Act was enacted hoping to decrease the poverty of large families. It was supposed to guarantee a minimum income for Canadian families.

1951 the Old Age Pensions Act was replaced by two separate plans. The first was Old Age Security where the individuals would all collect the same benefits without the high stakes and hurdles to receive funds. The second was the Old Age Assistance which was mean-tested.

From World War II to 1970 the government worked to stabilize the economy under the principles of Keynesian Economics. This meant that the government would support lower income families in times of recession in order for them to be able to give back to the economy by spending. This was a move away from the capitalist thinking were each individual fends for themselves, because of this change in thinking Canada was then considered a welfare state.

1965 the Canadian Pension Plan (CPP) was implemented which required individuals between the ages of 18 to 70 to contribute to this program as long as they were in the workforce, so every paycheck a certain amount was subtracted to go towards retirement.

The working poor are defined as people who are working, but are still in a poverty stricken state. This was the situation of 1976, so Canada took on a plan which they named war on poverty. The plan was to rid Canada of poverty and raise the standards of living by providing a guaranteed annual income (GAI). This income would be, “based on marital status, number of children, financial resources, age and geographic location.” The GAI was never implemented all across Canada, but some provinces showed variations of the idea of a minimum income.

Throughout 1973 to 1976 a social security review was undergone. There were some benefits such as, the family allowance was almost tripled as it went, from average, from $7.21 to $20.00 a month per child, and were, “indexed to the consumer price index.” There were also a few problems that arose, mainly the cost of programs which the government supported. This led to a decrease and in some cases the elimination of social welfare programs.