Caring for Canadians

In Volume II of this series they tackle the goal of giving Canadians the highest quality of life in the world, focusing on improving the provision of K-12 education, welfare, health care, and child care. They show how Canada can become the world's most caring nation - in practice - by implementing policies based on sound principles and powerful fact-based research.

Key recommendations include expanding freedom of choice in K-12 education via educational vouchers issued to parents by provincial governments; expansion of the shift from welfare to workfare pioneered by Mr. Harris's administration in Ontario; getting the federal government out of the child care field by ending federal spending initiatives in this area and ceding the equivalent tax room to the provinces; and making the tax system neutral with respect to the form of child care parents choose for their children.

With respect to health care, they advance further recommendations for achieving the goal of giving Canadians the best health care system in the world, strengthening universal access regardless of the ability to pay while offering a mixed approach (public and private) to health care delivery, payment, and insurance.

Manning and Harris's recommendations for rebalancing federalism with respect to the provision of social services are particularly relevant in light of the Supreme Court's Chaoulli decision, current concerns about fiscal imbalances, and the need to significantly reduce the current strains in federal-provincial relations which threaten unity.