The Social Union Framework Agreement (SUFA) was an agreement made in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

in 1999 between

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Jean Chrétien Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien (; born January 11, 1934) is a retired Canadian politician, statesman, and lawyer who served as the 20th prime minister of Canada from 1993 to 2003. He served as Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, leader of t ...

and the premiers of the

provinces and territories of Canada Canada has ten provinces and three territories that are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Constitution of Canada, Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North Amer ...

, except

Quebec Premier The premier of Quebec ( (masculine) or eminine is the head of government of the Canadian province of Quebec. The current premier of Quebec is François Legault of the Coalition Avenir Québec, sworn in on October 18, 2018, following that ...

Lucien Bouchard Lucien Bouchard (; born December 22, 1938) is a Canadian lawyer, diplomat and retired politician. A minister for two years in the 24th Canadian Ministry, Mulroney cabinet, Bouchard then founded and led the Bloc Québécois and became Leader ...

. It concerns

equality of opportunity Equal opportunity is a state of fairness in which individuals are treated similarly, unhampered by artificial barriers, prejudices, or preferences, except when particular distinctions can be explicitly justified. For example, the intent of equa ...

, social programs, mobility rights and other rights.

Background

According to Professor Alain Noël, the idea of a Canadian "social union" was a "fairly recent" one at the time of his writing in 1998. It emerged in the 1990s to describe economic and social policies in Canada. However, Noël notes some politicians and academics believed the social union in Canada was older, having been established at

Canadian Confederation Canadian Confederation () was the process by which three British North American provinces—the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick—were united into one federation, called the Name of Canada#Adoption of Dominion, Dominion of Ca ...

or after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

.Alain Noël, "The Three Social Unions," tr. Geoffrey Hale, ''Policy Options'' 19:9, November 1998, pp. 26-29. Entrenching a social union into the

Constitution of Canada The Constitution of Canada () is the supreme law in Canada. It outlines Canada's system of government and the civil and human rights of those who are citizens of Canada and non-citizens in Canada. Its contents are an amalgamation of various ...

was discussed in 1992 with a package of ultimately rejected amendments called the

Charlottetown Accord The Charlottetown Accord () was a package of proposed amendments to the Constitution of Canada, proposed by the Canada, Canadian federal and provincial governments in 1992. It was submitted to a public referendums in Canada, referendum on October ...

. This social union was proposed by the

New Democratic Party of Ontario The Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP; , NPD) is a social democratic political party in Ontario, Canada. The party sits on the centre-left of the political spectrum. It is Ontario’s provincial section of the federal New Democratic Party. The ...

. The social charter emphasized having common standards of social programs across Canada. Prime Minister Chrétien, coming to power in 1993, was not interested in constitutional reform, but became interested in a social union to repair

Canadian federalism Canadian federalism () involves the current nature and historical development of the federal system in Canada. Canada is a federation with eleven components: the national Government of Canada and ten Provinces and territories of Canada, p ...

after the

1995 Quebec referendum The 1995 Quebec referendum was the second referendum to ask voters in the predominantly French-speaking Canadian province of Quebec whether Quebec should proclaim sovereignty and become an independent country, with the condition precedent of ...

on sovereignty.

The Agreement

The agreement reached in 1999 recognized a number of principles and rights of Canadians, including common quality for social programs across Canada, and

health care in Canada Healthcare in Canada is delivered through the provincial and territorial systems of publicly funded health care, informally called Medicare. It is guided by the provisions of the '' Canada Health Act'' of 1984, and is universal. The 2002 Ro ...

with "comprehensiveness, universality, portability, public administration and accessibility." The agreement reaffirmed mobility rights for Canadian citizens, and the governments of Canada pledged to establish "no new barriers to mobility" through "new social policy initiatives". The Agreement also stated that "nothing in this agreement abrogates or derogates from any Aboriginal, treaty or other rights of

Aboriginal peoples There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

including self-government." Under the Agreement, new cross-Canada social programs with federal financial support may also be established with the agreement of the federal government and a majority of the provincial governments. As scholar Jennifer Smith notes, "There is no additional requirement of a population minimum" of the provinces supporting the programs. While theoretically the federal government could easily achieve new programs by appealing to "poorer provinces", particularly in

Atlantic Canada Atlantic Canada, also called the Atlantic provinces (), is the list of regions of Canada, region of Eastern Canada comprising four provinces: New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. As of 2021, the landma ...

, Smith notes that this view "assumes... that the poorer provinces are indiscriminate program takers."Jennifer Smith, "Informal Constitutional Development: Change by Other Means," ''Canadian Federalism: Performance, Effectiveness, and Legitimacy'', eds. Herman Bakvis and Grace Skogstad, Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford University Press, 2002, pp. 50-51.

Background

The Agreement

References

Further reading