Michael Mendelson

Collaborator

“I hope to help develop policy options which better combine rewards and opportunities for work with reliable, non-stigmatizing and adequate income security for people with disabilities, while remaining within feasible fiscal limits.”

Key Appointments

  • Senior Scholar at the Caledon Institute of Social Policy
  • Former Deputy Secretary (Deputy Minister) of Cabinet Office in Ontario
  • Served as an Assistant Deputy Minister in Ontario’s Ministries of Finance, Community Services and Health
  • In Manitoba, he was Secretary to Treasury Board and Deputy Minister of Social Services

Areas of expertise

Mr. Mendelson has been an active participant in several of Canada’s major developments in federal-provincial relations, finance and social policy in the last decades.  He led Ontario’s delegation on ‘division of powers’ in the Charlottetown Constitutional negotiations.  In the federal government’s Privy Council's Ministry of State for Social Development, he played a critical role in the development of the Canada Health Act.  He was a consultant for the Parliamentary Task Force on Federal-Provincial Fiscal Relations. He has also been a Visiting Professor at the University of Toronto, School of Social Work.

Research Activities

Mr. Mendelson has published many articles on social and fiscal policy, as well as a book on the issue of universality.  Some of his recent articles include: Improving Education on Reserves: A First Nations Education Authority Act (published by the Caledon Institute of Social Policy); Asset-Based Social Programs: A Critical Analysis of Current Initiatives (published by the OECD); Financing the Canada and Quebec Pension Plans (published by the American Association of Retired Persons); Building Assets through Housing (published by Canadian Housing and Renewal Association); Measuring Child Benefits: Measuring Child Poverty (published by the Caledon Institute of Social Policy) and Aboriginal People in Canada’s Labour Market: Work and Unemployment, Today and Tomorrow  (also published by the Caledon Institute of Social Policy).

Contact Information

Michael Mendelson