The Established Programs Financing (EPF) (french: Financement des programmes établis) was a financing program created by the Trudeau government in 1977, to finance the provincially-run

healthcare Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health profe ...

and high-education system, through transfer payments, by

cash In economics, cash is money in the physical form of currency, such as banknotes and coins. In bookkeeping and financial accounting, cash is current assets comprising currency or currency equivalents that can be accessed immediately or near-imm ...

and tax

point Point or points may refer to: Places * Point, Lewis, a peninsula in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland * Point, Texas, a city in Rains County, Texas, United States * Point, the NE tip and a ferry terminal of Lismore, Inner Hebrides, Scotland * Point ...

s. The 1995 Canadian federal budget announced that both the Established Programs Financing and the Canada Assistance Plan would be combined into a new block-fund fiscal arrangement called the Canada Health and Social Transfer starting in 1996–97 fiscal year.

History

The first agreement on Established Programs Financing was reached in 1977 and set to expired in 1987. It stipulated that increases in the program were tied to the growth in the national economy. The agreement was legislated through the ''Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements and Established Programs Financing Act, 1977''This Act was renamed ''Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements and Federal Post-Secondary Education and Health Contributions Act, 1977'' in 1984. which received royal assent on 31 March 1977.Budget Papers 1985
pages 71–72 The EPF was subjected to multiple rounds of cuts since the mid 1980s, under both Liberal and Progressive-Conservative governments. Starting on 1 April 1983, EPF growth was restricted to the lower of GDP growthTechnically the average GDP per capita growth rate over the preceding 3 years. and a ''maximum escalator rate'' of 6%. That rate was further lowered to 5% starting on 1 April 1984. In the 1985 federal budget, Finance Minister Michael Wilson announced a plan to limit the rate of the growth of EPF to save $2 billion by fiscal year 1990–91. The savings are achieved by modifying the

escalation clause An escalation clause is a clause in a lease or contract that allows for a change in the agreed-upon price in response to a specific factor that is outside of the control of either party. This type of clause is used to protect against potential ch ...

: for fiscal years 1986–87 through 1989–90 the ''maximum escalator rate'' is repealed but the escalation only considers GDP growth ''above 2%''.''Government Expenditure Restraint Act''
S.C. 1991, ch. 9, s. 5. Page 97. EPF growth rate was further reduced by 1% in the 1989 budget resulting in additional savings of $200 million in 1990–91. The 1990 budget froze EPF per-capita entitlements through fiscal year 1991–92, a measure implemented by the ''Government Expenditure Restraint Act'' that received royal assent on 1 January 1991. A few weeks later Wilson announced in the 1991 budget that EPF entitlements would be frozen through fiscal year 1994–95 and would then resume growth based on GDP per capital growth ''minus 3%''. The measure was implemented by the ''Budget Implementation Act, 1991'' which received royal assent on 17 December 1991.''Budget Implementation Act, 1991''
S.C. 1991, ch. 51, s. 2. (pages 2565 and following)

History

Notes and references

Notes

References

Related links