The Evolution of Community Living in Canada: Ontario, 1945–2005

Abstract

This chapter considers the evolution of community care using Ontario, Canada’s largest province, as a case study. It covers the period from the Second World War to 2001. As community care is a provincial responsibility, no national lens is possible, hence the use of a case study, though its experience in many ways mirrors that of other provinces. As in the United Kingdom, the War years saw increasing concern for public welfare in Canada and the beginnings of the welfare state. The federal Government issued in 1943 the Marsh report (Armitage, 1975, pp. 216–17). This report, similar to and influenced by the Beveridge Report, recommended a comprehensive set of income security meas-ures. This was followed in the 1950s with a series of ‘categoric pro-grammes’ which provided for means tested benefits cost-shared between the federal Government and the provinces. This cost-sharing approach became characteristic of Canadian programmes and allowed the federal Government to spur welfare reform despite health and social services being constitutionally under provincial jurisdiction.