Day Three: Highlights from the conference floor... Day 3 of the 2005 Canadian Social Welfare Policy Conference opened with a discussion of the importance of standards and indicators in education. Dr. J. Douglas Willms, Director of the Canadian Research Institute for Social Policy at the University of New Brunswick, presented his research on the correlations between test scores and socio-economic status, and discussed the effectiveness of different interventions to improve academic results. His research points towards targeted interventions, especially in the summer months, as the most effective approach. The final session of the 2005 Canadian Social Welfare Policy conference featured an animated discussion on the Canada Social Transfer. CCSD President Peter Bleyer introduced the session with the comment that the reduction of the CST in the 1990s had not always come up explicitly in earlier sessions, but had formed the context for many discussions over the last two and a half days. The CCSD is calling for changes to the transfer, including a substantial increase in its size. Two very distinct points of view were articulated. Stephen Kerstetter, a freelance social policy researcher affiliated with the BC office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, called for the federal government to enforce principles and standards across Canada. He advocated that the federal government transfer considerably more funds and guarantee coverage of no less than 50% of the costs of welfare. Barbara Cameron, Associate Professor of Political Science at York University, pointed out that the social transfer has always been challenged by Quebec, which sees it as an incursion into its jurisdiction. Likewise, national standards are generally rejected by Quebec as domineering, though they are supported by many in English Canada as a way of operationalizing social rights. This creates an impasse for progressive social development. Cameron suggested that this is a major reason why it has been impossible to translate the wide social support for social rights into concrete action. Without offering any magic bullets, Cameron offered a few possibilities for movement on this issue. The first is to build links between progressive groups inside and outside Quebec. Another is to use the language of social rights more, and possibly even hold a “Romanow 2” or Special Parliamentary Committee to look at the Social Transfer, as suggested by the National Anti-Poverty Organization (NAPO). The session engendered lively discussion, and ended the conference on a dynamic note. Some final reflections were offered by New Brunswick Minister of Family and Community Services Tony Hutjens, who said that he shared the concern of the conference with the need for restructuring of social infrastructure. He agreed that there is a need to help people stay in the labour force as well as join it, and reiterated his commitment to early learning environments. Gwen Davies, Vice-President of Graduate Studies and Research, closed the conference on behalf of the University of New Brunswick.