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Policy Communities and Policy Divergence in Canada: Agro-Environmental Policy Development in Quebec and Ontario*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2009

Éric Montpetit  and
William D. Coleman
Éric Montpetit
Affiliation:
École nationale d'administration publique
William D. Coleman
Affiliation:
McMaster University
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Abstract

Despite what would appear to be pressures for policy convergence in Canada due to growing continental integration and market competitiveness, agro-environmental policies in the provinces of Quebec and Ontario have become increasingly divergent over the past decade. Quebec's policies are comprehensive, coercive in approach and intrusive in the production process; those in Ontario, while comprehensive, rely more on industry self-regulation and shy away from intruding significantly into farming practices. Three institutional factors help explain this policy divergence. First, Quebec's main environmental act enabled the Ministry of the Environment to participate in the agro-environmental policy community's “subgovernment,” while the Ministry of the Environment in Ontario remained in the “attentive public.” Second, the agricultural policy network in Ontario took on many attributes of closed bipartite corporatism during the 1990s, thereby enhancing the power potential of Ontario's farmers. Third, path dependence related to policy feedback predisposed Ontario to self-regulatory approaches, but favoured strong statist policies in Quebec. The combination of these institutional differences creates distinct negotiation settings in the two provinces. Consequently, in Ontario, policy discussions tend to focus on wealth generation to the exclusion of distributive justice, while in contrast, Quebec's institutions focus more on distributive issues, perhaps at the expense of aggregate value creation.

Résumé

Bien que l'intégration nord-américaine et l'ouverture des marchés publics aient renforcé les pressions en faveur de la convergence des politiques publiques des provinces canadiennes, les politiques agro-environnementales du Québec et de l'Ontario sont devenues de plus en plus dissemblables au cours de la dernière décennie. Les politiques du Québec sont globales, coercitives et interventionnistes, exigeant que des changements radicaux soient apportées aux méthodes de production. Les politiques de l'Ontario, quoique globales, s'appuient davantage sur l'autoréglementation de l'industrie, évitant l'imposition de changements importants aux pratiques agricoles. Trois facteurs institutionnels expliquent ces orientations divergentes. Premièrement, la principale législation environnementale du Québec permet au ministre de l'Environnement de participer aux instances infra-gouvernementales qui éiaborent la politique agroenvironnementale, alors qu'en Ontario, le ministre de l'Environnement demeure à l' écoute de la communauté. Deuxièmement, durant les années quatre-vingt-dix, la politique agricole, en Ontario, a donné naissance à une structure de pouvoir corporatiste bipartite qui a accru l'influence des fermiers de cette province. Troisiémement, si les réactions du milieu agricole ont incité le gouvernement à adopter une approche non contraignante en Ontario, au Québec, elles ont plutôt encouragé les autorités à persister sur la voie de l'interventionnisme étatique. Ces différences institutionnelles ont engendré des contextes distincts de négotiation de la politique agro-environnementale dans les deux provinces. Alors qu'en Ontario, celle-ci est centrée sur 1'augmentation des revenus plutôt que sur leur distribution équitable, au Quebec c'est l'approche inverse qui prévaut.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 32 , Issue 4 , December 1999 , pp. 691 - 714
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association 1999

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References

1 For elaboration on this policy paradigm, see Coleman, William D., “From Protected Development to Market Liberalism: Paradigm Change in Agriculture,” Journal of European Public Policy 5 (1998), 632–;651.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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12 We follow Paul Pierson here in using policy feedback to refer to the politics that result from policies. Policy structures create resources and incentives for the formation and activity of social groups. Policies also affect processes of “social learning” among actors (Dismantling the Welfare State? Reagan, Thatcher, and the Politics of Retrenchment [New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994], 39ff).Google Scholar

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18 Under the Ontario Building Code, municipalities have to deliver building permits for any structure larger than 10 square metres, including manure storage facilities. When the structure is a farm building, the municipalities often require a project assessment by an agricultural engineer. OMAFRA's regional offices can provide this service. In certain cases, the regional conservation authorities have an advisory role for the issuing of municipal building permits. It should be noted that municipalities in Quebec have a similar responsibility in delivering building permits for agricultural projects, yet only once the project has been certified by the MEF.

19 AgCare, Update 9 (1999), 2. If all “lifestyle farms” are included, and these too are potential sources of pollution, the total number of farms in Ontario is over 70,000.

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27 It should be noted that the ministére des Affaires municipales (MAM) and municipalities have also developed a capacity for policy participation as a result of the contradiction between the Loi sur la protection du territoire agricole and the Loi sur l'aménagement et l'urbanisme. During the process of revising the Loi sur la protection du territoire agricole and the regulation on livestock operations, the MAM exercised pressures for thorough environmental rules similar to those proposed by the MEF.

28 See Coleman and Skogstad, “Policy Communities,” 26–29.

29 Kesteman et al., Histoire du syndicalisme, 270–72.

30 Ibid., 274.

31 Skogstad, “Farm Policy Community,” 73–75.

32 Interview, April 3, 1997.

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41 Farmers are permitted to request a refund from the organization to which they choose to pay dues. They have to make the request within 90 days starting with the deadline to pay the annual dues. Otherwise, all Ontario farmers are required by law to belong to one of the accredited general farm organizations. To date, the refund rate has been low.

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53 This negotiating situation comes closer to what Scharpf terms “problem-solving” (Games, 130–32).

54 Interview, February 12, 1997.

55 Interview, November 18, 1992.

56 Interview, November 13, 1992.

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