This is the tenth edition of How Ottawa Spends. Like previous editions, it focuses on particular departments and policy initiatives of the federal government. Beyond evaluating past actions, the book is intended to offer informed comment on prospects for the future in the areas it explores. This is the first edition since the re-election of a Conservative majority government in November 1988. As such, it provides a specific opportunity to identify some of the issues and challenges facing the second Mulroney government. Accordingly, this particular volume moves beyond How Ottawa Spends' customary treatment of the annual budget and Estimates to examine a broader question: Are we entering a new era of Canadian federalism wherein the federal government has a new and possibly reduced role? Put somewhat differently: Are we seeing new limits to the discretion of the federal government to act? If so, what are those limits and what are their implications for the style and substance of federal policy making? The broad treatment of these questions in the book's first chapter is intended to set the stage for the more specific discussions of discretion and the federal government which follow.

This is the eleventh edition of How Ottawa Spends .Like previous editions, it focusses on particular departments and policy initiatives of the federal government. This year's edition also deals with some of the internal management issues that have emerged as important in the government's quest for efficiency and productivity. Beyond evaluating past actions, the book is intended to offer informed comment on prospects for the future in the areas it explores. This is the second edition since the re-election of a Conservative majority government in November 1988. We now have an opportunity to assess the direction of the second Tory agenda. It seems important to start this assessment by asking some very basic questions: Is there a discernible government agenda? To what extent can we see similarities and differences in the direction of Conservative initiatives when we compare their first and second terms? What accounts for any similarities and differences that emerge? What are the implications of the direction of government initiatives? These questions are given broad treatment in the book's first chapter, which focusses largely on the February 1990 Budget and the federal Estimates for the 1990-91 fiscal year. That analysis is intended to set the stage for the more specific discussions of the federal agenda which follow.

This is the ninth edition of How Ottawa Spends. As in years past, this volume focuses largely on national priorities, federal spending and taxing. However, it also deals with the less visible underside of federal regulatory law and non-discretionary expenditures, such as the federal share of the Canada Assistance Plan. This is appropriate in terms of the theme of this volume: "Heading Into the Stretch". It is likely that this will be the last edition of How Ottawa Spends before the next federal election. Informed discussion and debate about the various federal responsibilities covered in this review are intended to spark public interest and help in consideration of the government record. It is hoped that the examination of the February 1988 budget and 1988-89 Estimates contained in this volume will also be illuminating.

Greg McElligott traces neoconservative labour market policy from its international origins to the local offices of the Canadian state.

This volume is the thirteenth in the series on federal government spending and policy performance compiled by Carleton University's School of Public Administration. This year's edition considers the politics of competitiveness - the ways in which international forces and trends pose particular challenges to federal policy makers. Articles are provided by experts on a variety of topics, including staff relations under the Tories, federal attempts to grapple with unemployment and the changing global economy, the evolving relationship between the Department of Finance and the Bank of Canada, changes in the funding of health care, the governance of the national capital, as well as federal attention to policies for the disabled and the Canadian AIDS policy. Also addressed are the Conservatives' centerpiece environmental program, the Green Plan and regulation to broadcasting in the face of major technological advances.