The Rowell–Sirois Commission officially known as the Royal Commission on Dominion–Provincial Relations was a Canadian Royal Commission looking into the Canadian economy and federal–provincial relations. It was called in 1937 and reported in 1940. The Commission was chaired first by

Newton Rowell Newton Wesley Rowell, (November 1, 1867 – November 22, 1941) was a Canadian lawyer, politician and judge, as well as a lay leader in the Methodist Church. Rowell led the Ontario Liberal Party from 1911 to 1917 and put forward a platform a ...

and then by Joseph Sirois. James McGregor Stewart acted as chief counsel. It was called as a result of the Great Depression. The attempts to manage the Depression by the government illustrated grave flaws with the

Canadian constitution The Constitution of Canada (french: Constitution du 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 ar ...

. While the federal government had most of the revenue gathering powers, the provinces had unexpectedly greater expenditure responsibilities. The founders had given the provinces responsibility for health care,

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...

, and

welfare Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...

when these were only minor concerns; by 1937, however, these had all become massive expenditure areas. The Commission recommended that the federal government take over control of

unemployment insurance Unemployment benefits, also called unemployment insurance, unemployment payment, unemployment compensation, or simply unemployment, are payments made by authorized bodies to unemployed people. In the United States, benefits are funded by a comp ...

and pensions. It also recommended the creation of

equalization payments Equalization payments are cash payments made in some federal systems of government from the federal government to subnational governments with the objective of offsetting differences in available revenue or in the cost of providing services. Many fe ...

and large transfers of money from the federal government to the province each year. Other recommendations were not adopted due to resistance from the provinces or the federal government.

External links

Index to Federal Royal Commissions

Royal commissions in Canada Canada in the World Wars and Interwar Years Constitution of Canada Constitutional commissions Great Depression in Canada 1937 in Canada 1940 in Canada {{canada-hist-stub

Further reading

External links