Drawing boundaries in federal systems is often a practical and constitutional challenge for public finance and the delivery of higher education. This paper studies arrangements between national and provincial governments as they affect post-secondary performance in Canada. The study investigates several categories of interaction between levels of government: transfer payments, student financial aid, research infrastructure, tax credits and policy, and philanthropy, accountability, and student accessibility. The study concludes that the interface between federal and provincial policy, although messy and improvable, divides mainly along lines between fiscal practice and programme delivery. The scale of public investment in higher education usually divides equally between federal contributions, which, except for research, are in most respects indirect, and provincial contributions, which are direct. Because provinces control tuition fees, the balance of total spending falls to them. Policies about quality, accessibility, affordability, and programme delivery reside with the provinces and their political priorities. Both levels of government are concerned about human capital formation and the role of higher education in economic growth but take different approaches. It is in this area that the federal-provincial interface is most problematic, and points to a problem endemic to the Canadian model of fiscal federalism.