A Call for an Intergovernmental Council
Immigration is a policy area considered to have concurrent jurisdiction by the federal and provincial governments. But no one ever mentions municipal governments. When we ask what is the federal or provincial interest in cities, immigration occupies a large chunk. Immigrants settle in certain cities and the availability of settlement services need to be accessible in these cities. Earlier this year I saw Sean Fraser, the Minister of Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Canada welcome refugees from Afghanistan to Canada. But I never thought about the mechanics that go behind operations like these. Which area will they live in? Do they have the resources they need to live comfortably?
Our Munk alumna Tehras working at IRCC explained how IRCC works directly with local governments and organizations to help with immigrant settlement and settlement integration. Since municipalities are “creatures of the provincial government,” oftentimes interactions between the federal government and municipal government are mediated by provincial governments. However, this example demonstrates cooperation and collaboration directly between the federal government and local governments.
Another policy area that would benefit from increased interaction between the different orders of government is long term care. Canada does not capitalize on the strengths of federalism to solve collective crises. In Germany, a fellow federalist country, nonprofits and civil organizations managed at the municipal level play a large role in the delivery of long term care. Instead of transfers from the federal to provincial governments, funding is directly funnelled to the local level.
I think this begs the question of whether Canada should consider establishing an intergovernmental council. There are no formal mechanisms in place that regularly bring together the Prime Minister, the Premiers, Mayors, and Regional Chairs. Meetings are often based on pre-existing relationships, and therefore Canada lacks the institutions to promote collaboration. We should be thinking of incentives for working together intergovernmentally. I think this course has demonstrated that there are numerous issues that cannot be meaningfully addressed by one government alone, especially urban issues.
Australia has established a Council of Australian Government since 1992, managing governmental relations within Australia’s federalist system. Canada’s Council of the Federation differs as Australia’s council includes local governments whereas Canada’s is limited to provincial and territorial representatives. If there were more avenues and opportunities for leaders to convene, discuss, share, and collaborate, there can be more diverse approaches to joint issues and possibilities to remove some of the transactional costs it takes to work together.
