Law and Public Policy

D05 - Provincial Public Policy

Date: May 30 | Time: 01:30pm to 03:00pm | Location: Classroom - CL 345 Room ID:15704

Chair/Président/Présidente : Daniel Béland (University of Saskatchewan)

Discussant/Commentateur/Commentatrice : Patrik Marier (Concordia University)

Intergenerational Issues in Alberta’s Non-Renewable Resource Wealth Governance: Lougheed to Klein: Geoff Salomons (University of Alberta)
Abstract: Intergenerational issues are an increasingly salient component of many policy problems facing government’s today. From climate change to housing to pensions, the intergenerational trade-offs are no longer able to be ignored. One issue with explicit intergenerational trade-offs is the governance of non-renewable resource wealth in Alberta. Non-renewable resources have undeniable intergenerational trade-offs precisely because of their finite nature. Some studies by academics and think tanks have tried to analyze the intergenerational aspects of Alberta’s non-renewable resource wealth governance by looking at specific policy single policy areas, typically evaluating royalty rates or the Alberta Heritage Fund. This paper takes a more comprehensive approach by analyzing how Alberta has collected, saved, and, most importantly, distributed its non-renewable resource wealth from 1971-2006 covering the Lougheed, Getty, and Klein administrations. Analyzing public finance data, archival research conducted from January to July 2017, and recently received documents from the Klein era through a Freedom of Information request, it will explore the politics of intergenerational policy making and the associated challenges with Alberta’s non-renewable resource wealth governance.

Between “Privatization” and “Leviathan”: Long-term Care Homes in Ontario: Poland Lai (York University)
Abstract: In the wake of eight murders of long-term care (LTC) home residents, the government’s appropriate role in LTC was subject to intense scrutiny as Ontario’s care regime is characterized by mixed public / private responsibilities. In the subsequent months, there is much uncertainty about the future of the LTC sector: its financial sustainability given an aging population, increasing and more importantly, accountability and oversight of homes. At the heart of the uncertainties is the dichotomy between the Market and the State, or between ‘privatization’ and ‘Leviathan’ (Ostrom 1990; Alford 2014). This paper aims to use the case study of the Ontario LTC sector to comprehend how regulation bridges the divide between the Market and the State (or central authority). The first part of the paper will bring together insights from two bodies of literature: feminist political economy (for example Armstrong, Braedley and Daly) as well as regulation and governance (for example Black, Levi-Faur, and Windholz). The main part will start with a primer on the Ontario LTC sector and then address three aspects of LTC: government control over supply of beds, protection of residents, and fragmentation of accountability. Specifically, I examine how recent regulatory changes are used by the government to reform the sector. The research methods include review of government documents, legal research and key informant interviews. The last part will present my preliminary observations regarding how these regulatory changes shape the balance of responsibilities among users of LTC (residents and families), homes and the state.

Irregular Migrants in Alberta and the 'Saskatchewan Option': Examining Migrants' Use of Social Networks and 'Inter-provincial' Legal Consciousness: Ethel Tungohan (York University)
Abstract: Policy changes to Canada’s Temporary Foreign Workers Program in 2011 and in 2014, which included reducing the numbers of temporary foreign workers who workplaces can employ and putting limitations on the length of time temporary foreign workers could stay in Canada, thrust many temporary foreign workers into a precarious situation. This paper uses oral life history interviews taken during ethnographic research with communities of irregular temporary foreign workers in Alberta to make two points. First, migrants strategically use their social networks in order to survive in Alberta with compromised legal status. Although the irregular migrants in my study experienced high amounts of stress because of their situations, the role played by cognitive processes such as imagining and strategizing allowed them to exercise agency. Of course, the conditionality of their status is affected by individual encounters and by new policy developments, showing that their ability to control their life trajectories is constrained by factors that went outside their control. Second, this paper claims that through migrants' use of ‘inter-provincial legal consciousness,’ which is derived from Helen Schwenken's framework of 'transnational legal consciousness,' they were able to imagine potential life paths in other provinces through other provinces’ provincial nominee programs. Similar to 'transnational legal consciousness', which argues that irregular migrants in Europe use their knowledge of different EU member states' migration policies to imagine different life paths, 'inter-provincial legal consciousness' highlights how migrants were aware of how Canada's devolved immigration system presented them with opportunities for settlement.