Working together: Parliamentary, cabinet, caucus, and/or representative collaboration across the levels in Canada.

• Date: 22 June 2020
• Author: Groves, David

On January 17, 2020, the Canadian Study of Parliament Group held a seminar entitled "Working Together: Parliamentary, Cabinet, Caucus, and/or Representative Collaboration Across the Levels in Canada" to hear from academics and politicians on the challenges and opportunities involved in cooperation and collaboration between jurisdictions.

Academic Perspectives

The seminar began with a panel of academics, who each offered observations on what kinds of conditions drive or impede intergovernmental collaboration and why true collaboration in Canada is so rare.

Jennifer Wallner, an associate professor at the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa, spoke first. Her work focuses on, among other things, intergovernmental relations from a comparative perspective. Ms. Wallner drew from her recent experience in the Intergovernmental Affairs Secretariat at the Privy Council Office to enrich her presentation, which advocated for investments in increasing intergovernmental relations.

She began by arguing that cooperation can lead to significant benefits but also stressed that there are significant obstacles to federal-provincial engagement in Canada. First, there are few formal structures in Canada that encourage intergovernmental collaboration. Second, governments often face a collective action problem--interests differ from province to province and shift depending on elections --that is aggravated by Canada's size and regional diversity. As a result, Canadian governments engage in what she refers to as "ostrich federalism," ignoring their counterparts entirely.

To overcome these obstacles, Ms. Wallner made three recommendations: first, making intergovernmental interactions more predictable and consistent, including fixed, regular first minister's meetings; second, the establishment of "inter-legislative councils" to connect provincial and federal legislators and eliminate the executive monopoly on intergovernmental relations; and third, mechanisms to give legislators more insight into, and scrutiny over, executive-level federalism.

Noura Karazivan, an associate professor of Public Law at the University of Montreal's Faculty of Law, spoke next. She focused on the claim among some constitutional scholars that federal-provincial cooperation requires protection by the courts. Picking up on Ms. Wallner's observations, Ms. Karazivan observed that intergovernmental agreements in Canada are not binding and can thus be undone anytime any party...