Hey, everybody, I'd really appreciate some kind of help... :-)

to stem the tide: den Lauf der Dinge aufhalten

See: Dictionary: tide

Not sure about "residual" here - maybe you could post the whole sentence?

What was not as widely appreciated was that the notion of a comprehensive social security system had been displaced by an essentially RESIDUAL approach that revealed itself at the federal level by the discarding of any notion of comprehensive planning.

The other extract was just a headline, but I think in this example, it's the same context.
Thanks in advance.

I do know nothing about the Canadian welfare system, but wouldn't "rückständig" work in this context?