The role of the federal government in Canadian education is an unusual one. Canada is the only industrialized country that has no federal office or department of education. Even in other federal states, such as Germany, there is a significant role in education for the national government. In Canada, federal activity in education, while it exists, is limited. Thus, there are different arrangements in each province for curricula, teacher certification, and even grades within the school system.

While the provisions of Section 93 of the Constitution Act give primacy to provincial authority over education and to the structures outlined in the preceding pages, the Act does not preclude federal government involvement. As education grew in importance in Canada, the federal government has made various efforts to play a more important role, and today it continues to have a presence in education despite the constitutional provisions of Section 93 (http://cmec.ca/299/Education-in-Canada-An-Overview/index.html). Some educational programs are run directly by the federal government, while others are collaborative ventures run jointly with the provinces or other educational authorities. (The federal role in the funding of education through transfer payments to the provinces is dealt with separately in Chapter 5.)

A major area of federal activity arises out of attempts to address the educational requirements of those areas of federal jurisdiction spelled out in Section 91 of the Constitution Act (e.g., national defence, Indian affairs, the territories, prisons, external affairs, and the economy). Thus, the federal Department of National Defence is responsible not only for the education of service personnel, but also for the education of children of members of the armed forces, either through the operation of schools on military bases or through agreements with nearby school boards. In the Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut, territorial departments of education perform functions generally similar to those of the provinces, they are funded primarily by the federal government.

International Education

The federal government, through the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Canada (IRCC), has in recent years worked in collaboration with the provinces and the Council of Ministers of Education (CMEC) to develop a national strategy for promoting international education (Advisory Panel on Canada’s International Education Strategy, 2012; Canada, 2019), that connects federal trade, and immigration interests with provincial education mandates (Elnagar, 2019; Elnagar & Young, 2021).  Encompassing both K-12 and post-secondary education, this strategy covers the recruitment of, and programs for, foreign students studying in Canada, Canadian students studying abroad, collaboration between Canadian education institutions and those in other countries, and the exporting of Canadian education models to other countries (Canada, 2019).

Of considerable significance in this regard is Canada’s membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO) established in January 2000 and the ongoing global negotiations taking place through the WTO to liberalize trade in services under the General Agreement on Trades in Services (GATS) (Canada, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade [DFAIT], 2003). In its participation in these negotiations designed to promote international trade and competition and the opening up of international markets to foreign service providers, Canada’s position has been that, while it is seeking increased access to international markets for the export of Canadian educational services, foreign access to Canada’s public education is non-negotiable (DFAIT, 2003). To do this, Canadian government representatives have drawn a distinction between “commercial education” and “public education” and remained committed to keeping public education out of the GATS negotiations. While advocates of the GATS negotiations argue for the substantial economic benefits that could be gained from exporting Canadian educational expertise, others see the process as presenting very dangerous threats to the integrity of public education in Canada. In this regard Grieshaber-Otto and Sanger (2002) suggest that the aims of GATS conflict with the basic principles underlying public education:

The impetus of the GATS is to expand commercial opportunities to foreign service providers and investors—in short, to commercialize services. Canada’s public education system exists to ensure free, high quality education for all regardless of citizens’ financial circumstances or their ability to pay. (p. v)

Table 2.10.1

International Students in Canada by Study Level (2008-2016)

Source. Canadian International Students by Level, 2016. The Canadian Magazine of Immigration. May 15, 2017. https://canadaimmigrants.com/canada-international-students-by-study-level-2016/