This text is a must for those of us looking to understand current Canadian federal political agenda and the role of the voluntary sector.This edited text of eight papers, is from an academic perspective while being very accessible in helpfully outlining the shift of federal funding policies and priorities from the former liberal government to the current conservative “Harper” government.  For readers, the stage is set with a great context of voluntary sector policy over the last 15 years with a perspective paper “The Harper Government and the Voluntary Sector: Whither a Policy Agenda?” (pp. 7-34, Susan D. Phillips).The additional papers build on the broader points by honing in on topics such as: Financial sustainability (Andrew Graham), social economy (Luc Thériault), “the Urban Agenda” (Neil Bradford), “Childcare Advocacy” (Grant Holly) and “Citizenship and Immigration” (Jehad Aliweiwi & Rachel Laforest).

Federal government interest in the Voluntary sector: From bad to worse This publication demonstrates that the relationship between the voluntary sector and the former liberal government was far from perfect and still needed development. Now it’s much worse. What was little long-term policy follow through on policy positions building off of capacity-building programs such as the Canada Volunteerism Initiative (CVI), has turned to overarching neglect for the voluntary sector.  Some examples: transfer whatever dollars possible to provinces to manage funded projects (e.g. Literacy, promotion of volunteerism), eliminate support for sector-based or interested research, eliminate advocacy groups. In short, I can’t say it better than one of the authors:

“The federal government has created a dilemma for itself. It appears to have made it clear that it does not need any relationship of significance with the voluntary sector- not advocacy, nor research, nor the promotion of volunteerism, nor social enterprise, nor active citizenship.” (pp. 30, Phillips)

The subsequent papers outline specifics around the nature of the how current federal government policy is ultimately creating issues with how effectively the voluntary sector can do its work. Hopefully, informing ourselves with this text’s well illustrated examples will lead to a more knowledgeable and empowered sector. Kudos to all the authors and editor Rachel Laforest for her oversight in bringing it all together and creating a great flow of articles that build off of the points made by each author.

Contributors include:Jehad Aliweiwi (Thorncliffe Neighbourhood Office), Neil Bradford (Western), Andrew Graham (Queen's), Grant Holly (Université de Montréal), Rachel Laforest (Queen's), Susan Phillips (Carleton), Senator Hugh Segal (Queen's), and Luc Thériault (UNB).