Report on Social Security for Canada

New Edition

Leonard Marsh

• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9780773551565
• eBook ISBN:
  9780773553644
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Global Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Report on Social Security for Canada, written in wartime, presented to Canadians a picture of a better life in the postwar world. It outlined what governments could do to ensure that all citizens could afford the food, clothing, and shelter necessary to participate fully in their community.

Authored by Leonard Marsh for the wartime Federal Advisory Committee on Reconstruction, the report was the subject of enormous attention when it was presented to the House of Commons in March 1943. Drawing on the work of his mentor, William Beveridge, and of John Maynard Keynes, Marsh primarily recommended an employment program meant to ensure lower unemployment and higher incomes. His report also discussed family allowances to make certain that no child would go without, health care insurance, temporary assistance in case of illness, a pension plan, and various other social benefits related to maternity, disability, loss of employment, and death.

Today Report on Social Security for Canada is seen as a foundational text for the Canadian social security system. In this edition Allan Moscovitch provides the historical context, an outline of Marsh’s accomplishments, and suggestions for how to enhance the welfare state and respond to the social needs of Canadians in the twenty-first century.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction to the New Edition
• Preface
• Introduction
• Letter of Transmittal
• Prefatory Note
• PART ONE The Basis of the Task
• 1 Canadian Perspective
• 2 Categories of Social Need
• 3 Minimum Standards and Existing Social Legislation
• 4 Securance of the Social Minimum: Social Insurance Principles
• PART TWO Employment
• 5 A National Employment Programme
• 6 Occupational Readjustment: Placement, Guidance, And Training Facilities
• 7 Unemployment Insurance
• 8 Unemployment Assistance
• PART THREE The Universal Risks: Sickness, Invalidity, Old Age
• 9 Health Insurance (Medical Care)
• 10 Industrial Accident and Disease: Workmen’s Compensation
• 11 Disability and Invalidity
• 12 Existing Old Age Pensions and Retirement Provisions
• 13 Contributory Retirement Insurance
• 14 Health Insurance and Other Social Security Plans
• PART FOUR Family Needs
• 15 Children’s Allowances
• 16 Women’s Needs in the Social Security System
• 17 Widowhood: Mothers’ Allowances
• 18 Survivors’ Insurance
• 19 Funeral Benefits
• PART FIVE Conclusion
• 20 Outlines of a Comprehensive System
• 21 Constitutional and Administrative Decisions
• 22 Financial Considerations
• APPENDICES
• APPENDIX I Industrial Accident (Workmen’s Compensation): Provincial Schedules of Payments (January, 1943)
• APPENDIX II Fatal Accidents (Workmen’s Compensation): Provincial Schedules of Payments (January, 1943)
• APPENDIX III Mothers’ allowances: Summary of Main Provisions in Canada (January, 1943)
• APPENDIX IV A Dominion Employment Service Policy
• APPENDIX IV B 1. Distribution and Placement Facilities.
• APPENDIX IV B 2. Training Facilities.
• APPENDIX IV B 3. The Training and Recruitment of Building Labour.
• APPENDIX V Industrial Retirement Plans in Canada.
• APPENDIX VI Rental Variations and the Minimum Standard
• Index to Tables
• Index