Key Provincial and Territorial Government Welfare Links

- L'aide sociale - Liens importants des gouvernements provinciaux et territoriaux

Updated June 24, 2009
Page révisée le 24 juin 2009

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[ Go to Canadian Social Research Links Home Page ]

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Ontario:

Social Assistance Rate Restructuring and the Ontario Child Benefit (MS Word file - 118K, 4 pages)
Fact sheet
June 2009
If you are a parent with dependent children under 18 and are on Ontario Works (OW) or the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), there are changes to your benefits coming soon. Starting in July 2009, the Ontario Child Benefit will increase to $92 per month per child. However, social assistance rates for families with dependent children are being further restructured.
- includes a description of the changes coming into effect on July 1 along and maximum monthly
Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Support Program rates before and after July 2009 for different family sizes.
Source:
Income Security Advocacy Centre (ISAC)

Jump directly to a specific jurisdiction: (this link takes you further down on the page you're now reading) Provinces and territories: Newfoundland and Labrador Prince Edward Island Nova Scotia New Brunswick Québec Ontario Manitoba Saskatchewan Alberta British Columbia Yukon Northwest Territories Nunavut ---------------- Income Assistance for members of First Nations living on a reserve ---------------- General/national welfare resources: (also lower down on the page you're now reading) * Welfare statistics * Welfare rates (benefit levels) * Welfare and the Canada Child Tax Benefit * Legislation * Historical welfare statistics ---------------- NOTE: for the latest budget info, go to the Canadian Government Budgets Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/budgets.htm   Anti-Poverty Strategies and Campaigns [This is a separate Canadian Social Research Links page]         FACTOID: On a yearly average, this page is viewed over 7,500 times a month. [Spring 2009]

For each Canadian province and territory, you'll find links to the following info on this page: Department responsible for welfare - Link to the government department responsible for the administration of the welfare program Name of the welfare program - Whatever a jurisdiction chooses to call its financial assistance program of last resort - social assistance, income support, income assistance and welfare assistance are the most common - "welfare" refers to government programs of last resort that provide financial assistance on the basis of a test that takes into account the applicant household's financial resources and needs (both notions as defined in provincial/territorial welfare legislation); entitlement is based on the budget deficit - needs minus non-exempted financial resources. (See the Welfare Reforms in Canada page of this site for more information about the needs test under "Welfare in Canada Today"). Legislation - Legislation is subject to change, so be sure to note the latest revision of any online legislation you use. Consolidations of statutes and regulations that are posted online usually include the date of the last update or amendment. Where there are several regulations under a particular jurisdiction's welfare statute, you'll find a link to each of those regs (e.g., NS, Alberta) in this page, but the regulation containing the general welfare provisions is highlighted. The other regs that appear under any given welfare statute deal with special topics like appeals, training, recovery of overpayments and a number of other areas. In addition to statutes and regs, you'll find a link to the source of legislation for each jurisdiction, so you can poke around for yourself... - see the special note on welfare legislation at the bottom of this page for alternate sources of legislation and regs. Policy Manual - This is where you'll find detailed information about the nuts and bolts of welfare in Canada. Initial and continuing eligibility conditions, benefits, administrative matters, interactions between welfare and other government programs, including many programs offered under the federal-provincial-territorial National Child Benefit initiative. Manitoba offers the most comprehensive and user-friendly online policy manual of all Canadian jurisdictions. A few other provinces offer a more modest policy manual online, and some have yet to post their manual to their website. If you wish to explore *only* welfare policy manuals, go to the Provincial/Territorial Welfare Policy Manuals page of this site: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/manuals.htm Welfare statistics - see the special note on Canadian welfare stats at the bottom of this page (welfare dependency, costs, etc.) - for stats on poverty, income, health, etc., go to the Social Statistics Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/stats.htm Welfare rates (benefit levels) - see the special note on Canadian welfare rates at the bottom of this page Related links - recent (and some historical) welfare reform information and other relevant links, plus a link to a separate Canadian Social Research Links page (of links) for each province and territory. ------------------------------------------------------- Google.ca Search Results pages - for each jurisdiction, you'll find links to search results for "welfare" (excluding child welfare or animal welfare) NOTES: 1. These links always take you to the most current search results, as if you'd just done a Google.ca search yourself. 2. Search results include Web search, News search and Blog search. 3. Because there is no Canada section as such on this page, and because there's still a modicum of interest in welfare-related issues at the national level, here are links to the same searches at the Canada-wide level: Latest search results on Google.ca for "welfare, Canada" - Web search results - News search results - Blog search results ------------------------------------------------------- Historical welfare information How did welfare work in Canada before the implementation of the Canada Health and Social Transfer in 1996? See Social Assistance in Canada, 1994 (further down on this page.) + selected historical welfare statistics ------------------------------------------------------- Have Canadian Welfare Reforms "Succeeded"? [This link takes you further down the page you're now reading] HINT: "YES!", says the Right. "NO!", says the Left.

Welfare Incomes, 2006 and 2007
December 2008
PDF version (16.6MB, 157 pages)
HTML version - table of contents with links to smaller PDF files for each chapter
Table of contents: * Message from the Chairperson * Patterns and Trends * What is Welfare? * Adequacy of Welfare Incomes * Welfare Incomes Over Time * Welfare Incomes and Child Benefits * Total Welfare Incomes and Poverty Over Time * Concluding Thoughts * Appendices * Fact Sheet: 2007 Provincial Welfare Rates Compared to the MBM
NOTE : the HTML version of the report also includes links to earlier editions of this report back to 1999

Poverty line is being cracked, but not broken
Cross-Canada action needed as economy worsens, National Council of Welfare says
News Release
Toronto, December 10, 2008
While incomes for most Canadians on welfare were stuck far below the poverty line, some cracked that line in 2007, the newest report by the National Council of Welfare says. But tough economic times mean it will be tough to really break through, unless comprehensive, nationwide action is taken, says the advisory body to the federal government. Welfare Incomes, 2006 and 2007 looked at the circumstances of Canadians on welfare in all provinces and territories. The study by the National Council of Welfare found that in the case of the lone parent with a pre-school age child living in Quebec, welfare income for 2007 reached 100 per cent of the Market Basket Measure (MBM), a poverty line measurement that takes into account the cost of meeting basic needs in different parts of Canada.

Fact Sheet:

2007 Provincial Welfare Rates
Compared to the Market Basket Measure (MBM) - (PDF - 18K, 2 pages)

Related links:

Market Basket Measure links
from Human Resources and Social Development Canada:

Low Income in Canada: 2000-2004 Using the Market Basket Measure
November 2007 (PDF file date)

Low Income in Canada: 2000-2002 Using the Market Basket Measure
June 2006

Source:
National Council of Welfare
The mandate of the National Council of Welfare is to advise the Minister of Human Resources and Social Development in respect of any matters relating to social development that the Minister may refer to the Council for its consideration or that the Council considers appropriate.

Related links:

Welfare recipients poorer than Canadians imagine: report
December 09, 2008
OTTAWA - Amid fears a souring economy will throw more Canadians onto provincial welfare rolls, a federal advisory body is issuing a bleak report that says most people living on social assistance are so impoverished that adequate housing, jobs and recreational activities are beyond their reach. With the exception of some residents of Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador, the country's 1.7 million welfare recipients subsist on incomes far below what most Canadians can imagine living on, the National Council of Welfare says in a massive report being released Wednesday which documents welfare incomes in 2006 and 2007.
Source:
Canada.com

Blunt message about welfare
December 19, 2008
By Carol Goar
They don't go in for euphemisms at the National Welfare Council, a panel of 16 citizens appointed by the government to speak for poor Canadians. They use the term "poverty line," despite attempts by federal statisticians to substitute anodyne phrases such as "low income measure." They use the word "welfare," despite attempts by provincial bureaucrats to replace it with gentler phrases such as "social assistance" or "income support." Their message is blunt. Canada strips welfare recipients of so much – their pride, their privacy, their savings, their ability to provide basic necessities for their children – that many will never escape poverty. (...) The central thrust of the report – a point the council made to Brian Mulroney seven times; Jean Chrétien 10 times; Paul Martin once and Stephen Harper once before – is that welfare, Canada's safety net of last resort, doesn't provide a basic subsistence income.
Source:
Toronto Star

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Welfare Incomes 2005 (PDF file - 1.4MB, 116 pages)
August 2006
"Welfare Incomes 2005 estimates total welfare incomes for four types of households in each province and territory, for a total of 52 scenarios. The four household types we use are a single employable person, a single person with a disability, a lone-parent with a 2-year-old child, and a two-parent family with two children aged 10 and 15. The National Council of Welfare has published similar estimates since 1986."

Staggering losses in welfare incomes (PDF file - 524K, 2 pages)
Press release
August 24, 2006
"In Alberta, the income in real dollars of a single person on welfare has decreased by almost 50 percent since 1986. Since 1992 in Ontario, the welfare income of a lone parent with one child has decreased by almost $6,600 and a couple with two children has lost just over $8,700. The National Council of Welfare’s report, Welfare Incomes 2005, paints a dismal picture, and one that is getting worse. When adjusted for inflation, many 2005 welfare incomes were lower than they were in 1986. Most welfare incomes peaked in 1994 or earlier...."

FACT SHEETS from Welfare Incomes 2005
# Welfare Incomes by Province and Territory, Peak Year and 2005
# Welfare Incomes by Household Type: Losses, Peak Year to 2005
# Welfare Incomes Over Time: 1986 to 2005 by Province and Territory
# Welfare Incomes 2005 by Province and Territory and Type of Household
# Welfare Incomes 2005 by Type of Household and Province/Territory (graph)
# Adequacy of 2005 Welfare Incomes by Province
# The Clawback of the National Child Benefit Supplement
# Changes in Welfare Incomes for Families with Children, 1997 to 2005 (graph)
# Methodology Used for Welfare Incomes
# Number of People on Welfare, March 1995 to March 2005 (PDF file - 133K, 1 page)

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Welfare Income series of reports - includes previous editions back to 1999

National Council of Welfare Research and Publications
- links to NCW research areas and collections of fact sheets

Complete List of Council Publications - some online, most in paper format, right back to 1971

Source:
National Council of Welfare
The Council was created in 1969, and its mandate is "to advise the Minister of Human Resources and Social Development in respect of any matters relating to social development that the Minister may refer to the Council for its consideration or that the Council considers appropriate."

Google.ca Web Search : "welfare incomes report, canada"
Google.ca News Search : "welfare incomes report, canada"
Source:
Google.ca

Important note for anyone comparing welfare rates across different Canadian jurisdictions:

Since its launch in the summer of 1998, the federal-provincial-territorial National Child Benefit (NCB) initiative has imposed a change in the way welfare rates for families with children can be compared across Canadian jurisdictions. The federal Canada Child Tax Benefit is now integrated with income support (welfare) for families with children in a number of Canadian jurisdictions - but not all. This means that any interprovincial comparison of welfare rates for families must, for the sake of comparability, include the basic welfare benefit for the household AND the total of any federal/provincial/territorial child benefits that the family receives on behalf of each child.

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Provincial and territorial child benefit and credit programs
that are related to the Canada Child Tax Benefit (CCTB):
* Alberta Family Employment Tax Credit * BC Family Bonus (and British Columbia Earned Income Benefit) * New Brunswick Child Tax Benefit * Nova Scotia Child Benefit * Newfoundland and Labrador Child Benefit (and Mother Baby Nutrition Supplement) * Northwest Territories Child Benefit * Nunavut Child Benefit * Ontario Child Benefit * Yukon Child Benefit
[NOTE: residents of Québec must apply to the Régie des rentes for the child assistance payment.]

Source:
Canada Revenue Agency

Editorial Comment (by Gilles)
When I added the above links to the CCTB amounts for all tax years, I thought I should also update the list of provincial and territorial child benefit programs that are related to the CCTB, all under the umbrella of the National Child Benefit (NCB) initiative. As I read that list for myself, my heart went out to the hapless analysts in government and non-governmental researchers whose job duties include comparing welfare rates across jurisdictions, especially for families with kids. Since the launch of the NCB initiative in 1998, many provinces and territories have been creating separate children's benefits programs for all children in low-income families, not only those on social assistance. And thus I came to understand what David Ross (former Director of the Canadian Council on Social Development and a respected champion of social justice issues) had meant when he said back in the early 1990s something about "taking kids off welfare". In the case of families in receipt of welfare, it's generally child-related costs that constitute the so-called "welfare wall", which is the loss of non-cash benefits like vision, drug and dental coverage when a household head leaves welfare for a job. I wholeheartedly support the provincial-territorial government trend towards paying child-related financial benefits to *all* low-income households outside of welfare, so that families can leave welfare more readily without losing their children's benefits. HOWEVER, because Canadian jurisdictions have adopted different approaches in their treatment of the CCTB and provincial-territorial child benefits for welfare rate calculations, it's getting exceptionally difficult to compare welfare rates across provinces and territories, especially for families with children.

The National Council of Welfare has been doing interprovincial welfare rate comparisons going back to 1986 (annually since 1989) for various family types and sizes, and their rate information is always vetted for factual accuracy by government officials in each jurisdiction prior to release. The latest complete annual report in this series is Welfare Incomes, 2006 and 2007 (December 2008). The comparative rate tables in this report take into account the treatment of child benefits in the welfare system of each jurisdiction. There's also a brief overview of the different approaches that provinces and territories have adopted concerning child benefits and welfare. For more detailed information on child benefit clawbacks and pass-ons, see Approaches to Replacing Social Assistance Benefits for Children - from the 2006 National child Benefit Progress Report.

For more than 20 of my 30 years in the federal civil service, I was responsible for producing and maintaining detailed welfare rate information for each province and territory for the administration of the Canada Assistance Plan. Part of my job was supporting the Council in the production of their welfare incomes series, and I can vouch for the rigid verification process that the Council followed to ensure a high-quality report.
See the Council's Welfare Incomes series of reports (only recent years are posted on the Council's website).
It's the ONLY source that I'd recommend for longitudinal welfare rate comparisons across Canada.
On behalf of welfare researchers everywhere, I'd like to thank the provincial and territorial government officials who take the time to provide feedback on rates for their jurisdiction in each edition of Welfare Incomes and thus ensure that the series is a factually-accurate, credible resource for all to use freely.

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Related information :

NCB Progress Report: 2006
Table of contents of the report:
Chapter 1: What is the National Child Benefit Initiative?
Chapter 2: The National Child Benefit Supplement
Chapter 3: Components of the National Child Benefit Initiative
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NOTE: Chapter 3 of the report contains detailed information about the three different approaches used to harmonize/integrate federal and provincial-territorial children's benefits paid to Canadian families. This is compulsory reading for anyone who does welfare rate comparisons for families with children across Canadian provinces and territories.
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Chapter 4: First Nations and the National Child Benefit Initiative
Chapter 5: Monitoring Progress - Societal Level Indicators
Chapter 6: Assessing the Direct Impact of the National Child Benefit Initiative
Chapter 7: The Way Ahead
Appendices:
1: Glossary
2: Provincial, Territorial and First Nations National Child Benefit Reinvestments and Investments (by province/territory)
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NOTE: Appendix 2 of the report contains, for each province and territory, a detailed account of the new and enhanced initiatives made possible by the National Child Benefit.
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3: Results of the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) Analysis
4: Additional Statistical Information

Earlier reports in this series - for 2004 and 2005 only
GOVERNMENT TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY, MY ARSE.
Since the NCB website was re-launched at some point during 2008 or early 2009, this archive page contains links to annual progress reports for 2004 and 2005 only, compared with the old version of this page, where you could find links to annual reports going back to the first full year (1999) of operation of the NCB, along with news releases, backgrounders and more. It doesn't cost more than a few cents to create a permanent archive of ALL of the NCB progress reports, but when the government arbitrarily decides to dump the older reports, it's nothing less than a slap in the face of government accountability and transparency. There should really be some entity in government (maybe the Auditor-General) who could say "Hey, federal government : deleting historical reports from your websites is not transparent, and it's not accountable!"
Source:
National Child Benefit website

HOWEVER:

Internet Archive to the Rescue!
This page is a functional snapshot (i.e., with working links) of the reports
available in the NCB website in February of 2008
- on this page, you'll find links to all the earlier reports and news releases and backgrounders that were unceremoniously dropped in the re-launch of the NCB website
Source:
This page, which is a functional snapshot (i.e., with working links) of the home page
of the NCB website in February 2008
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[ How did I do that? - see how the Wayback Machine can help you to avoid 404 Fury... ]

Source:
National Child Benefit Website
(Federal-Provincial-Territorial Government website)

NOTE: there's also a section of the National Council of Welfare's report Welfare Incomes, 2006 and 2007 that covers the treatment of federal children's benefits under provincial-territorial welfare programs.

See also:
Child and Family Benefits Page
[ Canada Revenue Agency ]

See the Unofficial Social Union Links page for more about the NCB and NCB reports
See also the Unofficial Provincial/Territorial Social Union/NCB Links page of this site for over 200 links to information from all provinces and territories about their programs under the NCB initiative.

From the website of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada:

Income assistance (welfare / social assistance) for
Members of First Nations living on reserve*:

Income Assistance Program - from Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC)
INAC has engaged in on-reserve income assistance activities since 1964, with the broad objective of providing individuals and families with the means to meet basic needs for food, clothing and shelter. (...) As a matter of policy, INAC follows the terms and conditions of provincial and territorial general assistance [welfare] programs. While INAC may directly deliver the income assistance program, the program has been largely devolved. The Department's present involvement in income assistance activities is primarily to provide funding to First Nations who in turn deliver programs and services to community members. In 2006-2007, 534 First Nations administered their own program (This figure does not include First Nations functioning under self-government arrangements).

[ * First Nations members living off-reserve must apply for welfare to the provincial authority where they reside. ]

Related link:

Income Assistance Program - National Manual
NOTE : includes excellent information on the history of social assistance to members of
Canada's First Nations along with information on the federal-provincial-First Nations roles and responsibilities in the area of income assistance.
Table of Contents:
* Introduction
* Definitions
* 1 - Backgrounder
* 2 - Program Components
* 3 - Funding Arrangements
* 4 - Financial Administration
* 5 - Reporting and Compliance
* Annex A - Resource Information and Links
* Annex B - Resident On-reserve Communities
* Annex C - Income Assistance on Site Compliance Review Process

Social Programs
In addition to income assistance, INAC supports "province-like social programs" in First Nation communities including education, early childhood development, housing, family violence prevention and help for persons with disabilities. Click the link above for general information or click any link below for more specific info.

* Assisted Living Program * Family Violence Prevention Program * Justice * Non-Insured Health Benefits * Band Moneys * Indian Status * Wills and Estates * National Child Benefit Reinvestment Initiative * First Nation Child and Family Services Program * Early Childhood Development

Source:
Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC)

NOTE: for links to welfare statistics for a specific province or territory,
go back to the top of the page you're now reading and select a jurisidction in the left-hand column.
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Social Assistance Statistical Report: 2005
August 2006 (Second edition)
Report prepared by:
Federal-Provincial-Territorial Directors of Income Support

Social Assistance in Canada [in 2005] : An Overview
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 Policy
[ Human Resources and Social Development Canada ]

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Related Links from the
National Council of Welfare:

Number of People on Welfare, March 1995 to March 2005 (PDF file - 133K, 1 page)

Profiles of Welfare: Myths and Realities (Spring 1998)
- large statistical collection covering twenty years of data, examining variables like family types, reasons for assistance, age, education, duration of spells on assistance, housing and more.
NOTE: number-crunchers who specialize in welfare statistics can compare this report with the 2004 report above for some interesting observations --- but be careful about data incompatibilities between the two reports...

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Welfare leavers

Social Assistance Use: Trends in incidence, entry and exit rates
August 2004
by R. Sceviour and R. Finnie
"This paper explores the dynamics of Social Assistance use over this period [1995-2000] to calculate annual incidence and entry and exit rates at both the national and provincial level, broken down by family type. These breakdowns, available for the first time ever, are revealing as policy varied by province and family type and not all provinces shared equally in the recession or the expansion that followed it. The paper does not attempt to apportion the movements in SA participation rates between those related to the economy and changes in the administration of welfare. The focus is on the empirical record of SA entry, exit, and annual participation rates.
Source:
Feature Articles [NOTE: check out dozens of links to past feature articles here!]
Canadian Economic Observer
[ Statistics Canada ]

Followup article:

November 17, 2004
Social Assistance by Province, 1993-2003
Feature Article in the November 2004 issue of The Canadian Economic Observer
"Social assistance rates fell in every province between 1993 and 2003, but nowhere was the decline more dramatic than in Alberta and Ontario, according to a new report."

Earlier studies on welfare leavers:

Life after welfare : 1994 to 1999
March 2003
"Family incomes rose for the majority of people who stopped receiving welfare benefits during the 1990s. However, for about one out of every three individuals, family income declined significantly, according to a first-ever national study of the economic outcome for people who left welfare rolls."
The link above takes you to a summary of the report.
Complete report:
Life After Welfare: The Economic Well Being
of Welfare Leavers in Canada during the 1990s (PDF file - 332K, 32 pages)
Source:
The Daily
[ Statistics Canada ]

Related Links:

After Welfare - Contrasting Studies (British Columbia)
"Statistics Canada has released a study on people who leave welfare that contrasts with the story spun by BC's Minister of Human Resources, Murray Coell. "Life After Welfare: The Economic Well Being of Welfare Leavers in Canada during the 1990s" by Marc Frenette and Garnett Picot provides some fascinating contrasts with Coell's characterization of the 90s and
with what are passing as welfare exit surveys in his ministry."
Source : Strategic Thoughts

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Historical Welfare Statistics

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
[ Human Resources and 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 tables with info on Blind Persons' Allowances, Disabled Persons' Allowances and Unemployed Assistance.
Check older editions of this report for those data.

Many of the tables are historical and likely of little interest except to historians and CAP-o-philes --- they offer historical caseload and expenditure statistics on each of the CAP cost-sharing components (General Assistance - Homes for Special Care for Children and Adults - Child Welfare - Health Care - Other Welfare Services and Work Activity).

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).

You'll find many key stats tables and some interesting analyses here - only a few of which appear below
- includes links to over two dozen tables (Tables 352-911) with info on federal contributions under the Canada Assistance Plan (CAP) and the Canada Health and Social Transfer (CHST) to the cost of provincial and territorial welfare programs.
NOTE: for more info about CAP, the CHST and the Canada Social Transfer (CST, which replaced the CHST in April 2004), see the Canada Assistance Plan / Canada Health and Social Transfer / Canada Social Transfer Resources page of this site.

A few sample tables:

Table 360 - Total Federal-Provincial Cost-Shared Program Expenditures, 1978-78 to 1999-2000
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

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See also:

Historical Statistics of Canada (2nd edition, 1983)
Jointly produced by the Social Science Federation of Canada and Statistics Canada
Go to the home page and browse the table of contents of this excellent historical resource. Tables are arranged in sections with an introduction explaining the content of each section, the principal sources of data for each table, and general explanatory notes regarding the statistics. This online statistical collection complements and expands on Human Resources Development Canada's Social Security Statistics, Canada and Provinces report.
Source:
Statistics Canada

Historical Statistics of Canada contains links to over 1,000 statistical tables (downloadable in Excel format) on the social, economic and institutional conditions of Canada from the start of the Confederation in 1867 to the mid-1970s. It's worth downloading the free Excel 97/2000 Spreadsheet File Viewer from Microsoft if you don't have Excel software on your machine.
For a complete list of topics covered, see the Alphabetical Index - everything's there from Accidents and Fatalities to Zinc Production.

Here's a sample section:

Section C: Social Security - by T. Russell Robinson, Health and Welfare Canada
Contains seven pages of historical information on the evolution of Canadian social programs, plus links to over 180 tables organized under the following headings: Federal Income Security Programs - Federal and Provincial Income Insurance Programs - Cost-shared Federal-Provincial Income Security Programs - Federal and Provincial Social Service Programs - Provincial-Municipal Income Security Programs - Government Expenditures on Social Security by Broad Program Areas. Unfortunately, the section on the Canada Assistance Plan provides stats only from 1970 to 1975, but you'll find other historical gems here, like federal transfers to the provinces and territories, 1947 to 1975, Unemployment insurance account, 1942 to 1976, Old Age Pensions recipients for Canada and by province, March 1928 to 1951, and much more...
Great collection of historical Canadian social program stats!

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From the Canadian Council on Social Development:

Free Statistics - poverty lines, poverty statistics, welfare incomes, etc.

The Social Indicators Launchpad - 60+ links to information about social indicators in Canada and other countries

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- See the Canadian Social Research Links Social Statistics page for related links.

Legislation

Legislation woes?
It's very frustrating trying to keep up with legislative links in each jurisdiction - they keep changing the legislation, and they keep changing the links to that legislation.

If you can't find statutes and regulations for a specific Canadian jurisdiction, try these links:

Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII)
- incl. over 100 links to federal, provincial and territorial courts (incl. supreme courts), as well as statutes and regulations for most jurisdictions.

Canadian Consolidated Statutes and Regulations - from the federal Department of Justice

See the Canadian Social Research Links Legislation Links page for links to other related sites.

 

Historical Welfare Information - 1994, 1997

 

Other Welfare Resources

You'll find a lot more welfare-related information on other Canadian Social Research Links pages. The most detailed information is in the provincial/territorial section (left column) of this site's Home Page - hundreds of government and NGO links, including reports and studies on many aspects of welfare in Canada. NGO links are either at the bottom of the government links for each jurisdiction or on a separate page (depending on the number of links for each jurisdiction).

For information on conditions of eligibility (including the financial nitty-gritty), administration (fraud controls, application review process) and benefit calculations, I'd recommend Provincial/Territorial Welfare Policy Manuals. Not all jurisdictions are online yet, and the amount and quality of content vary. If provincial government people are reading this, I'd like to recommend Manitoba as an excellent model for your manual.

If you're looking for more general information on welfare in Canada, see Anti-Poverty Strategies and Campaigns, Welfare Reforms in Canada and Canada Assistance Plan / Canada Health and Social Transfer / Canada Social Transfer Resources. The last two pages include some content based on my experience as well as links to relevant sites and reports.

The "themes" section of this site (right column on the Home Page) - also includes more links to welfare information. The content of those pages is more chaotic than the government section, but I guarantee you'll find welfare links on every one of those pages.

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From the
Canadian Council on Social Development:

Poverty Reduction Policies and Programs
Social Development Report Series, 2009
Series Editor: Katherine Scott
May 2009
Fourteen authors discuss the ideas, interests and institutions that have shaped the evolution of poverty reduction policies and programs in Canada and the issues for each jurisdiction moving forward.

Recommended reading - includes detailed historical and contextual information on welfare and poverty reduction in each province and territory, along with an overview of the federal role in and contributions toward poverty reduction in Canada. For links to all reports, click the link above or go to the Anti-Poverty Strategies and Campaigns page of this website, where you'll find links to all 14 reports in this series + 900 more links to online content related to poverty reduction in Canada.

Source:
Canadian Council on Social Development

Related links:
- Go to the Anti-poverty Strategies and Campaigns page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/antipoverty.htm

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