Canadian cities and the American example: a prologue to urban policy analysis

Article Abstract:

The developmental pattern that characterizes metropolitan areas in the United States often serves as a basis for evaluating the condition of Canadian cities and attributing a distinctive thrust to Canadian urban policy. To be meaningful, however, comparative evaluations have to take account of the way government activities have helped to shape U.S. metropolitan areas over an extended period of time. A criticism implicit in much U.S. urban analysis is that government activities have persistently contributed to large inequalities in the social and economic condition of metropolitan area municipalities. In Canada, by comparison, interjurisdictional equalization has played a larger role in federal-provincial relations than it has in federal-state relations in the United States. It also seems to have influenced the way provincial governments dealt with municipalities during the 1960s and 1970s. At the present time, however, provincial government are allowing the governmental systems of metropolitan areas to become more fragmented. They are also under pressure to reduce or abandon their efforts to equalize services and property tax burdens among municipalities. How they respond to that pressure will help to determine how closely the development of Canada's metropolitan areas conforms to the pattern of urban development characteristic of the United States. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

United States, Public works, City planning, Urban planning, Community development, Urban policy

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Aging policy and process in the Canadian federal government

Article Abstract:

This essay puts forward a reformulation of the federal government's aging policy and is intended to bring out the diversity of policy processes that operate in this field of political action. Four policy arenas are identified: the large-new, large-old, small-new, and small-old. Applying this typology, it becomes apparent that the existing Canadian age-policy literature has been mostly concerned with just one of these four categories, namely the large-new, while tending to neglect the other three. Since the roles of senior citizen organizations and the federal bureaucracy, although acknowledged in previous writing, have not been specified precisely nor fully analysed, special attention is devoted to them. While both of these forces are shown to exercise some considerable influence over aging policy in Ottawa, the relative extent of their influence is seen to vary among the various arenas, with the senior citizen groups tending to have their greatest influence in advancing "new" policy proposals - both large and small - while the bureaucracy is found to exert its impact more with respect to existing ("old") programs, both large and small. The results make it possible to identify with some precision the particular functions fulfilled by each of these forces in the policy process. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Laws, regulations and rules, Elder law, Old age assistance

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The recruitment and selection of visible minorities in Canadian police organizations, 1985 to 1987

Article Abstract:

This study is an update of the 1985 survey. The main object of the study was to review existing police recruitment and selection policies across Canada between 1985 and 1987; identify systemic barriers, if any, faced by visible minorities in entering police forces; and to make recommendations in order to increase the representation of such minority persons in Canadian police departments. Fourteen police departments, representing all regions of Canada including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), the Quebec Police Force (QPF) and others were included in the study. The findings indicated that (a) there has been some improvement in the hiring of visible minority police officers since the 1985 study; (b) policy makers in pertinent jurisdictions need to amend police legislation to bring the statutes in compliance with the Charter of Rights and the human rights laws with respect to police uniform requirements, age and height standards; (c) police organizations need to review their selection policies with regard to job interviews, psychological tests and the like in order to avoid possible adverse impact on minorities; and (d) police organizations not collecting data on visible minorities should be required to do so. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Surveys, Recruiting, Employee recruitment, Employment, Civil service, Law enforcement officers, Minorities, Police, Police officers, Minority employees, Canada. Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Minorities in the civil service

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