Canada’s Provincial and Territorial Premiers agreed in July 2003 to create a new interprovincial-interterritorial Council of the Federation to better manage their relations and ultimately to build a more constructive and cooperative relationship with the federal government. The Council met on October 24, 2003 in Quebec City and on December 5, 2003 in Charlottetown where the premiers signed a Foundation Agreement. This initiative holds some significant promise of establishing a renewed basis for more extensive collaboration among governments in Canada while also raising some important questions and challenges.

In the weeks leading up the October and December meetings, the Institute of Intergovernmental Relations at Queen’s University and the Institute for Research on Public Policy in Montreal jointly published a series of commentaries to encourage wider knowledge and discussion of the proposed Council, and to provoke further thought about the general state of intergovernmental relations in Canada today. These commentaries are included here together with the Foundation Agreement itself.

We have also included as an appendix a paper written some years ago by Tom Courchene that helped to encourage the events leading to the establishment of the Council.

This series was edited by Douglas Brown at Queen’s University in collaboration with France St-Hilaire at the IRPP.

 

Title	Author/Editor	Year
Getting Things Done in the Federation: Do We Need New Rules for an Old Game?	Douglas M. Brown	2003	Download
Intergovernmental Councils in Federations	Ronald L. Watts	2003	Download
The Council of the Federation: From a Defensive to a Partnership Approach	André Burelle	2003	Download
Expanding the Partnership: The Proposed Council of the Federation and the Challenge of Globalization	Hamish Telford	2003	Download
Managing Interdependencies in the Canadian Federation: Lessons from the Social Union Framework Agreement	Harvey Lazar	2003	Download
The Council of the Federation: Conflict and Complementarity with Canada’s Democratic Reform Agenda	Roger Gibbins	2003	Download
Quebec and Interprovincial Discussion and Consultation	Claude Ryan	2003	Download
The Health Council of Canada Proposal in light of the Council of the Federation	Gregory P. Marchildon	2003	Download
Council of the Federation: An Idea Whose Time has Come	J. Peter Meekison	2003	Download
The End of a Model? Quebec and the Council of the Federation	Alain Noël	2003	Download
Counsel for Canadian Federalism: Aboriginal Governments and the Council of the Federation	Frances Abele & Michael J. Prince	2003	Download
Some Personal Reflections on the Council of the Federation	Bob Rae	2003	Download
A Short Path to Revitalized Federalism	Tom Kent	2003	Download
ACCESS: A Convention on the Canadian Economic and Social Systems	Tom Courchene	2003	Download
Council of the Federation Founding Agreement	Premiers of Canada	2003	Download