ABSTRACT
The first major step in regional policy came with the Agricultural Rehabilitation and Development Act of 1961, together with the work of the 1964 Senate Committee on Land Use in Canada. Regional policies present particular difficulties for policy makers in that they inevitably cut across traditional departmental lines. There is the general belief that the initiative in regional development must rest in federal hands because that is where the available funds are to be found. At the federal level, one starting point might be set at 1957 with the fiscal equalization scheme. The chapter provides a link between the discussion of planning at the federal and provincial levels. The federal-provincial tax sharing arrangements Act of that year provided for unconditional equalization payments to the relatively low-income provinces. The main traditional programs of department of regional economic expansion (DREE) operate under the provisions of the DREE Act and the regional development incentives Act.
