Fiscal Retrenchment and Social Assistance in Canada

This paper exploits the fact that a confluence of events in the mid-1990s caused Canadian provincial governments to re-examine the design of their social-assistance programs. Three provinces in particular—Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario—chose to introduce substantial changes to the administrative procedures by which applicants applied to gain, and maintain, access to social assistance. We identify the relative contributions of economic influences, cuts to social-assistance benefits, and new administrative procedures on the fraction of the population eligible for social assistance.