Canada

Article Outline

Introduction; Land and Resources; People; Arts; Economy; Government; History; The 21st Century

Social Services and Health Care

All levels of government share the responsibility for social welfare in Canada. The chief federal agencies responsible for social service programs are Health and Welfare Canada and Human Resources Development Canada. The latter agency administers comprehensive income maintenance programs, such as the national pensions, old-age security, and unemployment insurance (known officially as the Employment Insurance program). Nationwide coordination is considered to be necessary for these programs. The federal government also provides services for indigenous peoples and veterans, and it provides block grants to provincial governments to help cover their expenditures in health, education, and public assistance.

Canada’s health system has successfully provided health services to all people regardless of income for many decades. Canada’s infant mortality rate, at 5 per 1,000, is one of the lowest in the world. Vaccination programs have brought diseases such as polio under control. Canadians have one of the highest life expectancies in the world and a generally high level of health throughout their lives. Most Canadians consider their health-care system a sacred trust.

However, the Canadian health-care system is being squeezed on the one hand by rising costs and on the other by reductions in government funding. Costs are increasing for a variety of reasons: an aging population, increasing poverty, higher expectations for health services, population growth in some provinces and cities, intractable diseases such as cancer, newer ones such as acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), and higher-cost treatment procedures. Governments concerned with deficit reduction are looking for ways to reduce costs; user fees for certain services, billing for extra physician visits, and private clinics have been suggested. Canadians are worried, however, about creating a two-tier system where the wealthy would have better access to health care than the poor, which has become a serious issue in the United States.

The problem of rising health-care costs is particularly acute for the Canadian federal government, as it covers a larger percentage of total medical costs than the U.S. government—69 percent of all health-care spending comes from the federal government in Canada versus 45 percent in the United States. Overall Canadian federal government spending rose from C$81.8 billion on health care in 1998 to more than C$130 billion in 2004, an increase of 59 percent. The 2004 total represented slightly more than $C4,000 for each man, woman, and child in the country.

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The Child Tax Benefit, Employment Insurance, the Canada Pension Plan, and the Canada Health and Social Transfer (CHST) program are the chief forms of federal welfare service. The Child Tax Benefit is a monthly stipend paid to low- and modest-income families with children to help cover the costs of child maintenance. Employment Insurance provides income for up to a year, in the event of job loss, to workers who receive a salary or an hourly wage. The Canada Pension Plan supplies retirement and disability income and survivors’ benefits to older workers, keyed to the amount of their lifetime earnings. It is supplemented by Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement, which are paid to people over 65 regardless of how much they earned. The CHST program provides money to the provinces to administer programs for health care, higher education, social assistance, and other social services.

The administration of welfare services is mainly the responsibility of the provinces. Municipalities and other local entities actually provide the services, generally with financial aid from the province. Provincial governments also have the major responsibility for education and health in Canada, with municipalities assuming authority over matters delegated to them by provincial legislation. The provinces spend about 30 to 35 percent of their total budgets on health care and about 17 percent on social services.

State-funded medical health insurance was first enacted in Saskatchewan in 1947 by the provincial government. A national system was established with the Hospital Insurance and Diagnostic Services Act of 1957 and the Medical Care Act of 1966. In 1984 the Canadian Parliament consolidated these acts into the Canada Health Act. Under that law, the provinces must ensure that their health care systems meet the following criteria: (1) public administration—the health insurance plans must be administered by a public authority accountable to the provincial government; (2) comprehensive benefits—the plan must cover all medically necessary services prescribed by physicians and provided by hospitals; (3) universality—all legal residents of the province must be covered; (4) portability—residents must continue to be covered if they move or travel from one province to another; (5) accessibility—services must be made available to all residents on equal terms, regardless of income, age, or health needs. Private health insurance companies also operate in Canada, providing coverage for services beyond the regular system, such as ambulance fees and private hospital rooms.

The incidence of most diseases in Canada is similar to that in other developed countries. There are no diseases unique to Canada. The leading causes of death in 1997—the most recent year for which complete statistics are available—consisted of cancer, 27.2 percent; heart disease, 26.6 percent; and cerebrovascular diseases, 7.4 percent. Infectious diseases are fairly rare, although incidence varies between socioeconomic groups. Tuberculosis, for example, once thought to be under control in Canada, is now widespread in indigenous communities and other vulnerable populations, such as homeless people and those who are more than 65 years old. There were 1,628 new or relapsed cases of tuberculosis reported in 2003.

Attention also has focused on AIDS in recent years. The first known case in Canada was recorded in 1982. Since then there have been an estimated 20,000 cases of AIDS in the country. Despite improved drug and therapy programs, the number of persons living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)—the virus that causes AIDS—is rising, from an estimated 40,000 in 1996 to 56,000 in 2002. The death rate of individuals with AIDS declined during the 1990s as new medications were introduced, but stopped dropping late in the decade as the virus developed resistance to them. See also Health Care System in Canada.

Defense

As a country of nearly 33 million people, Canada is not a central military power. A special joint Senate and Commons committee reaffirmed in 1994 that Canada’s existing defense policy is to oversee and protect Canada, survey and control Canadian airspace and coastal waters, and participate in multinational security operations. Canada spends 6 percent of the federal budget on its armed forces, which are intended to evolve toward greater flexibility, mobility, and affordability.

The Canadian Forces are unified rather than being divided into separate branches, as with the U.S. military. The head of the armed forces is the chief of the defense staff, who reports to the civilian minister of national defense. Under the defense staff are three major commands, organized by function: the air, maritime, and land force commands. Military service is voluntary, and there has been no conscription in Canada except for brief periods during the two world wars. Conscription measures were unpopular and were soon repealed.

Canada was a founding member of NATO in 1949, and until 1994 Canada had air and land forces stationed in Europe to support NATO. Canada also participates jointly with the United States in the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), which coordinates the air and space defense of North America. Canada is a leading peacekeeping nation, regularly sending service personnel to participate in United Nations peacekeeping or supervisory operations.

Occasionally the armed forces have been used in domestic affairs. The most notable of these incidents occurred during the October Crisis of 1970, when Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau deployed the armed forces to prevent terrorist activity in the province of Québec. The army has also intervened in various protests by indigenous peoples in recent decades.

In the 1990s Canada reduced its military expenditures. Funding for the armed forces peaked in the early 1990s, at which time the military employed more than 120,000 people both in and out of uniform. By 2005 the numbers had dropped to 63,700 for regular forces and 22,000 for reserves. Funding actually rose during the same period, however—from C$11.3 billion in 1994 to C$13 billion in 2005, although inflation plays a role in the increase.

In general, the military does not have a high profile in Canada. Military affairs have had little impact on politics since the conscription controversy of World War II (1939-1945). In the mid-1990s a public inquiry into misconduct on the part of Canadian peacekeeping soldiers in Somalia revealed several cases of abuse of foreign civilians, including the murder of a Somali man. During the investigation, officers and department officials were accused of trying to cover up the incident and of tampering with evidence, and the result was the disbanding of the Airborne Regiment involved and the resignations of two succeeding chiefs of the defense staff. A new minister of defense was appointed, and his decision to terminate the inquiry before its completion was criticized by many.

Foreign Policy

Foreign policy is coordinated by Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. The country uses its influence to encourage democracy, the protection of human rights, free trade, and peaceful resolution of conflicts. These objectives generally coincide, but occasionally choices must be made among them. For example, Canada participated in economic sanctions against South Africa during the era of apartheid, placing the issue of democracy above that of trade. In the 1990s, however, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien declared that the most effective way to promote democratic movements and human rights was through increased trade, a policy that drew criticism from some groups but was supported by the business community.

The policy has also frustrated some of Canada’s allies. The United States, especially, disapproves of Canada’s continuing trade with Cuba in the face of a U.S. embargo of that country. Tensions rose between the two countries in 1996 when the United States tried to enforce its Helms-Burton Act, which barred entry into the United States of certain foreign persons doing business in Cuba. Canada retaliated by passing the Foreign Extraterritorial Measures Act, forbidding Canadian companies from observing U.S. embargoes. Since the late 1990s the United States has backed off on enforcing Helms-Burton against Canadian firms. Trade between Canada and Cuba remained strong into the 21st century, and in 2005 Canada was Cuba’s third-largest trading partner.

Tensions between the United States and Canada over foreign policy were renewed in 2003 over the unilateral decision of U.S. president George W. Bush to invade Iraq and oust the regime of Saddam Hussein. Canada urged the United States to work through the United Nations (UN) and rejected Bush’s unilateral approach. Canada’s refusal to send troops to Iraq angered the Bush administration. See also U.S.-Iraq War.

Foreign aid, including money, goods, expertise, and emergency relief, is also an important part of Canada’s foreign policy. The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) was formed in 1968 to manage Canada’s foreign aid program, which annually provides billions of dollars in aid to developing countries. The International Development Research Centre, set up in 1970, funds research into possible adaptations of science and technology for use in the developing world.

Canada has always had a strong role in the United Nations (UN), the umbrella organization for international cooperation and problem resolution. Canadian leaders have expressed the belief that cooperation and consensus among nations are the best hope for the future. Prime Minister Lester Pearson’s mediation in the Suez Crisis of 1956 and his proposal for an international peacekeeping force won him the Nobel Peace Prize and boosted the role of peacekeeping forces around the world. Canada supports the UN in many ways: as a major financial contributor; as a participant in many UN aid organizations; and as a contributor to the world’s peacekeeping troops. Canada has also supported a number of UN-led military interventions—for example, in the Korean War (1950-1953) and in the Persian Gulf War in Kuwait (1991)—but advocates earlier involvement to prevent active fighting. Canada also sent troops in support of the UN effort to protect Kābul, the capital of Afghanistan, after the United States invaded and toppled that nation’s Taliban regime in retaliation for the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Canada belongs to a variety of major international organizations. One is the Commonwealth of Nations, which developed gradually after World War I (1914-1918) as former British colonies gained their independence. Others include NATO (1949) and NORAD (1957). Canada has enthusiastically supported the international associations for world peace and cooperation, first the League of Nations (1920-1946) and then its successor the United Nations (UN), of which Canada was a charter member in 1945. Other international groups that Canada has joined are the International Monetary Fund (1944), World Bank (formally the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, 1944); World Trade Organization (formerly General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, 1948); Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (1961); L’agence de Cooperation Culturelle et Technique (1970); G-7 Summit (1976); Organization of American States (1989); and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation organization (1994).

VII

History

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Canada’s human past begins with the long tenure of the indigenous societies, followed by the 500-year collision between those peoples and the newly arrived Europeans. European colonization gave way after 1867 to the era of the Canadian nation-state. In the 20th century Canada became one of the world’s small group of wealthy, highly industrialized, technologically advanced, and heavily urbanized democracies. Yet regional tensions, ethnic rivalries, global pressures, and the powerful neighboring presence of the United States continued to challenge Canada’s political unity and cultural identity.

First Inhabitants

Prehistory

The indigenous peoples say they have been in Canada as long as the landscape itself. Evidence of their presence dates from the time when the land reappeared from under the great ice sheets that covered most of the country during the Pleistocene Ice Age at its peak about 18,000 years ago.

Dry land, largely ice-free, linked Asia and Alaska during the Pleistocene Epoch. Most anthropologists believe Canada’s first immigrants used this isthmus, a natural land bridge called Beringia, to migrate into North America at least 15,000 years ago. Some scholars believe the earliest migrants arrived much earlier, perhaps 30,000 years ago or longer. These first people seem to have been nomads who hunted mammoth, bison, and caribou. They expanded their range as the ice sheets retreated. As the climate stabilized and northern North America developed its modern ecological zones, such as tundra, forest, and prairie, the hunters adapted to local conditions. See also First Americans.