Just saw this in yesterday's National Post:
National Post Online
December 9, 2000
Chretien eyes cradle-to-grave benefits
Longing for a legacy, PM creates committee to study guaranteed annual
income program
James Baxter
Southam News
OTTAWA - Jean Chretien is considering the creation of a
cradle-to-grave guaranteed annual income program, government sources
say.
The Prime Minister is reportedly preparing to assemble a high-level
committee to determine the feasibility of a lifetime guaranteed annual
income program. One name being touted to lead the committee is Ian
Green, the deputy secretary to the Cabinet.
Top-level Liberals said yesterday they expect the initiative to
feature prominently in the upcoming Throne Speech, expected in
mid-February.
Sources said little is known about whether significant new funds would
be drawn from the government's ballooning budget surplus or when the
program might be put in place.
The minimum-income supplement would be developed by merging all or
parts of the federal child benefit, welfare, employment insurance and
old age pension programs.
Officials at Human Resources Development Canada said yesterday the
department plans to undertake a full review of all its current income
programs and create an inventory of how much gets spent in each of the
regions. They admitted the federal government is aware that any plan
of this sort would likely raise concerns in some provinces and that
significant "horse trading" of powers will be required.
Provinces usually view new social initiatives with considerable
suspicion, complaining that the government creates new programs and
then withdraws funding once the programs are up and running. In this
case, the provinces would likely demand a guarantee of perpetual
funding.
The Prime Minister's Office and Privy Council Office both refused to
comment yesterday and would not confirm the existence of the special
committee. Creating such a program would allow Mr. Chretien to fulfill
a number of his campaign promises, notably attacking child poverty and
restoring funding to social programs.
More importantly for Mr. Chretien, a guaranteed income program would
provide him with a political legacy to rival Pierre Trudeau's
repatriation of the Constitution or Brian Mulroney's North American
Free Trade Agreement.
However, people close to the Prime Minister said he was deeply moved
by the public outpouring of emotion at Mr. Trudeau's death and the
reverence for what he built.
Aides say privately that, armed with a new mandate, Mr. Chretien
appears galvanized to "create something of lasting significance."
In a speech on Wednesday, Mr. Chretien hinted his goal for the
upcoming Parliament will be to wage war on poverty.
"The fact is that our prosperity is not shared by all," the Prime
Minister said in his keynote address at the Liberal party's
Confederation Dinner. "There remain, unfortunately, serious social
problems in the land. Too many children live in poverty. Too many
aboriginal Canadians live in Third World conditions. As a Liberal, I
deeply believe that government has the responsibility to promote
social justice."
While Mr. Chretien's interest in it is new, the concept of a national
guaranteed income is not. It was originally espoused by noted
economist Milton Friedman as early as 1962 and, at the urging of the
New Democrats, was examined by the Liberal government of Lester B.
Pearson, in whose Cabinet Mr. Chretien first served.
It again saw life in 1971 when it was openly championed by Trudeau-era
Cabinet heavyweight Marc Lalonde, who at the time was Minister of
Health and Welfare, in a report titled Federal Income Security
Protection. The idea was hotly debated, but was never embraced by Mr.
Trudeau and was eventually shelved.
The idea was resurrected during the 1993 election campaign when the
Reform Party added it to its platform as a way of streamlining
Canada's convoluted income-security programs. It was then considered
as part of the social security reform undertaken by the Chretien
government in its first term, but was ignored because it was seen as
potentially too expensive during a period of deficit-cutting.
As the deficit was pared down, the idea again caught the attention of
then-HRDC deputy minister Mel Cappe, who is now Clerk of the Privy
Council and Ottawa's most influential bureaucrat. A former executive
assistant to prime minister Joe Clark, Mr. Green was an associate
deputy minister under Mr. Cappe at Human Resources Development Canada
and is considered one of Mr. Cappe's most reliable and trusted
deputies. Mr. Green moved over to the Privy Council Office in 1998, a
year before Mr. Cappe became the country's top public servant.
________________________________________________________
Tom Walker
Sandwichman and Deconsultant
Bowen Island
(604) 947-2213
