Welcome to Canadian Social Research Links!

My name is Gilles Séguin.

I've been involved in the social program information field since the fall of 1975, when I joined the Cost-Shared Programs Directorate of the Department of National Health and Welfare to work in a shop called the Canada Assistance Plan. My job there was to produce summaries of provincial/territorial social assistance (welfare) programs based on the legislation and policy manuals of each jurisdiction. Less than a year later, I was asked if I'd be interested in taking on the responsibility of maintaining a similar report in a different branch, for distribution to some 300 federal, provincial and territorial government welfare administrators; I thought it might be fun for awhile, so I monitored and chronicled welfare programs from the summer of 1976 --- until 1994. That's when the welfare mandate was transferred and I moved, along with the other welfare folks, to Human Resources Development Canada. HRDC was renamed Social Development Canada in December 2003 and then Human Resources and Social Development Canada (HRSDC)] after "Canada's New Government", the Conservatives, took office early in 2006.

Nineteen ninety-four was the start of a tumultuous period that saw the rise and fall of the ill-fated Lloyd Axworthy Social Security Review (see the CAP/CHST Resources page of this site for more on that...) and the announcement (in the February 1995 federal budget) of a significant change in the way the feds would be contributing to provincial/territorial social programs starting in April 1996.

Beginning in the summer of 1996, I spent a year on secondment with the National Council of Welfare. During that time, I did the research and wrote the provincial-territorial section of a report entitled Another Look at Welfare Reform (100+ pages of information on Canadian welfare reforms in the nineties, published in the fall of 1997) and the 1995 welfare incomes report. Check out the Council's Publications List for two dozen online reports, mostly about poverty and welfare in Canada.

In the summer of 1997, I rejoined my old group in the Social Policy Directorate of the Strategic Policy Branch in HRDC.
Here, until the next website "restructuring", is where you can find the link to my old group, Social Policy Directorate, in the Policy and Strategic Direction Branch.

In November of 1997, I launched Canadian Social Research Links, on my own time and on my own dime, so that I could share my collection of web links with colleagues in the social research community, whether in government, the non-governmental sector or academia. I started the Canadian Social Research Newsletter as a convenience within a few months after the site launch for folks who didn't have the time to visit the site regularly, and it quickly took on a life of its own...

...to the point where I decided the day job was taking up time that I preferred to devote to maintaining my site and newsletter.
I left the federal civil service on October 17, 2003 to do just that.

Even though I'm no longer working with the federal government, I still want to draw your attention to some excellent social program resources that you'll find on the website of my old Directorate:

 

Social Assistance Statistical Report: 2005
August 2006 (Second edition)
Report prepared by:
Federal-Provincial-Territorial Directors of Income Support

"This is the second edition of the Social Assistance Statistical Report: 2004 of the Federal, Provincial and Territorial Directors of Income Support. The Social Assistance Statistical Report: 2005 provides provincial-territorial income support (primarily social assistance) statistics."

NOTE: Chapter Two of the report is a five-page descriptive overview of social assistance in Canada in 2005. It provides information about the federal contributions to provincial, territorial and municipal social assistance under the Canada Assistance Plan (1996-1996), the Canada Health and Social transfer (1996-2004) and the Canada Social Transfer (2004 to date).
Other chapters provide, for each province and territory, some general information of eligibility (including asset and income exemption levels) and benefits, as well as an impressive number of statistical tables, graphs and charts providing numbers of cases and beneficiaries (time series statistics going back as far as the mid-1990s, depending on the jurisdiction), profile information (age/education/sex of household head, cases by reason for assistance) and even (for most jurisdictions) the percentage of households reporting income.

Complete report
in one PDF file - (921K, 174 pages)

Link to the first edition of this report:
Social Assistance Statistical Report: 2004

Source:
Social Program Analysis
Strategic Policy - Children and Families
NOTES:
1. this is where I worked before my retirement in 2003 - Gilles
2. yes, I know that the link above takes you to a page called "Social Policy", but the group's name changes more often than its website, and that's where you'll find the social assistance statistical report.
3. be sure to click the link above and peruse the list of reports that are available on this page - the words "Gold Mine" come to mind. The words "Best-Kept Secret" also spring to mind, because the reports on this page tend to just appear here as if by magic, without so much as a peep in the Departmental "What's New" page.
<Argh.>
[ Policy and Strategic Direction Branch ]
[ Human Resources and Social Development Canada ]

Over 40 pages of information on Canadian social assistance programs as they operated in 1994. Much of the information in this document is still as relevant today as it was back then - eligibility, benefits, administrative rules, and more. Includes information about cost-sharing of welfare costs under the Canada Assistance Plan. Question-and-answer format for quick reference. This work was part of a larger study of social assistance in 24 countries released by the OECD early in 1996. I was the author of this report, with a lot of input from a number of colleagues in the Department at the time. If you want a snapshot of what welfare was like in Canada before the Canada Health and Social Transfer in 1996, try this one...

Social Security Statistics, Canada and Provinces
1978-79 to 2002-03

This is a goldmine of statistical information (beneficiary data and expenditure data) on current and defunct Canadian federal social programs, and even some on provincial/territorial programs.

This report offers 25 years of longitudinal data on costs and numbers of beneficiaries for most programs - over 100 tables - covering a large number of programs --- here's a partial list:
- Child Tax Benefit, Family Allowances, the Child Tax Credit, Old Age Security/Guaranteed Income Supplement/Spouse's Allowance ("The Allowance"), Federal Training and Employment Programs, Federal Goods and Services Tax Credit, the Canada/Quebec Pension Plans, War Veterans' and Civilian War Allowances, Veterans' and Civilians' Disability Pensions, Unemployment/Employment Insurance, the Canada Assistance Plan, Workers' Compensation, Youth Allowances, Social Assistance and Social Services for Registered Indians --- and more...

Source:
Social Policy Directorate
[ Policy and Strategic Direction Branch ]
[ Social Development Canada ]

Preface (short blurb only)

List of Tables
[Read the Introductory notes at the top of the page and in Appendix A of this report for all methodological notes.]
"...Tables in this report have been organized into two parts. Part I presents three Overview Tables which illustrate the trends in social security expenditures by all levels of government for Canada. Part II comprises Component Tables which provide data on beneficiaries and expenditures for individual programs."

A number of tables were removed from this edition of the Social Security Statistics report, including some Workers' Compensation tables and tables with info on Blind Persons' Allowances, Disabled Persons' Allowances and Unemployed Assistance Total Federal-Provincial Cost-Shared Payments.
Check older editions of this report for those data.

Scroll down the list of tables to find a particular program, then click on its name to access the HTML version of the table (the HTML page includes links to the PDF and Excel versions of the table).

A few sample tables:

Table 360 - Total Federal-Provincial Cost-Shared Program Expenditures, 1978-79 to 2002-03
NOTE: Table 360 traces the evolution/devolution of transfers under the Canada Assistance Plan (in dollars) from 1976 to 1999. No new claims were paid out under CAP after the Canada Health and Social Transfer came into effect in April 1996; amounts shown as CAP expenditures for the fiscal years after 1995-96 are final settlements with each jurisdiction for all outstanding commitments by the federal government.

Table 361: Canada Assistance Plan (CAP) - Number of Beneficiaries of General Assistance (including dependants), as of March 31, 1979 to 1996
- This is a key table for research on welfare programs - welfare dependency statistics by jurisdiction over the years. These are the final, definitive numbers.

Table 362 : Total Federal-Provincial Cost-Shared Expenditures for General Assistance, by Province/Territory, 1978-79 to 1995-96
- this table should be of special interest for welfare historians and number-crunchers - it shows exactly when Canadian government spending on welfare (by the federal and provincial/territorial governments) started looking a little fuzzier. When the feds imposed the cap on CAP (max. 5% annual increase in total CAP payments) in Ontario, Alberta and BC in the early 1990s, those three provinces stopped reporting how much of their CAP dollars were going to welfare (vs. other CAP components covered under the same federal contribution). Table 362 shows that as of 1991-92, the federal contribution to those three provinces for General Assistance appears as "n/a" - so it's been impossible to produce a national figure since then. Unless, of course, one wanders over into the minefield of provincial government welfare statistics, where welfare programs (and related expenditures) have undergone a major transformation. If you *do* want to check out welfare stats for each Canadian jurisdiction, your best starting point is the Key Welfare Links Page of this website - http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/welfare.htm - which includes links to welfare stats in each province and territory where they're available.

Table 434
Total Federal Payments under CAP, 1978-79 to 1999-2000
[The note under table 360 also applies to this table. ]

Table 435
Number of Beneficiaries (including dependants) of Provincial and Municipal Social Assistance, as of March 31, 1997 to 2003

Table 438
Provincial and Municipal Social Assistance Program Expenditures, 1980-81 to 2002-03

Table 526
Provincial and Territorial Children's Benefits and Earned Income Supplements, Expenditures for Fiscal years 1978-79 to 2002-03

 

Max
The KITTY PAGE
Don't go there if you hate cats - it'll make you gag.

 


So happy I could just...
Annie
Annie's Garden Pics

 

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Gilles' CLOSETCAM
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During March 2006, Gilles' CLOSETCAM page was viewed 79 times,
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Personal Photos
(sorry, no nudes - go here for the only nude on this site - and no, it AIN'T me.)
NOTE: I had some of the links to my photos on this page, but I've decided to keep the personal photos (of me) together on a single page. Go here to see my Toque Tuesday toque, my St. Christopher House T-shirt, my smoking cessation acupuncture photo, my $32.50 fish, etc...
Gilles
 
Ode to Traductors

So why do I do this?
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iconIf you're curious about my web experience, see my Web Authoring Tools page - I've included links to some of the web resources that I use. Light on the techno-babble, mostly links and leftovers picked up during my trip up the Internet learning curve...
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How Stuff Works
The Middle-Aged Guy's Secret Guide to everything from air conditioners to Van de Graaff generators. A treasure trove of links to information about everything under the sun - or just about.
Makes me feel like a kid again, taking Dad's electric razor apart... 
Everyone should plan a visit to this site - I guarantee you'll find something to pique your curiosity. 
 
Procrastination Research Groups
- Here's a link to the real group at Carleton University in Ottawa (I found this while I was procrastinating about something else) 
-Here's a link to the Ottawa-Carleton Procrastination Group" (I'm the Chairperson, webmaster and only member - I haven't gotten around to asking people to join...)
Thinking of moving to ROGERS@HOME?
See my Rogers@Home Adventure page
(I don't update this page anymore; I created it late in 1998 and I just saved it for "historical" purposes)
hamburg
Gilles' Culinary Pages!!
1. My Culinary Guru's Philosophy
2. My Favourite Recipes
Links, Musings and Silly Stuff
My original home page
it's, its - WHATEVER.