Agreement to amend the Canada – New Brunswick Labour Market Development Agreement

Note: By agreement of the Parties, the agreement was signed in English only. The French version is provided for convenience only. In the event of a conflict with the English version, the English version prevails.

Between

The Government of Canada, hereinafter referred to as "Canada", represented by the Minister of Employment and Social Development styled as the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, and the Canada Employment Insurance Commission

And

The Government of New Brunswick, hereinafter referred to as “New Brunswick”, represented by the Minister of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour

Hereinafter referred to as "the parties"

Preamble

Whereas the parties concluded the Canada-New Brunswick Labour Market Development Agreement (“Canada-New Brunswick LMDA”) on December 13, 1996;

Whereas the Canada-New Brunswick LMDA was amended on June 6, 1997, December 23, 1998, April 2003, August 31, 2005 and May 22, 2009;

Whereas in Budget 2016, the Government of Canada announced that it would provide an additional $125 million in 2016 to 2017 to be allocated between the provinces and territories under the LMDAs to help ensure unemployed Canadians can access the training and supports they need to develop their skills and pursue opportunities for a better future;

Whereas to access this additional funding the parties agree to amend the Canada‑New Brunswick LMDA to reflect this one-time increase to the federal contribution toward the cost of provincial benefits and measures for fiscal year 2016 to 2017;

Whereas the definition of “insured participant” in section 58 of the Employment Insurance Act (“EI Act”) was amended effective July 3, 2016 and New Brunswick has expressed the desire to expand the definition of “EI client” in the Canada-New Brunswick LMDA applicable to the provincial benefits and measures to reflect the definition in the EI Act;

Therefore, the parties agree to amend the Canada-New Brunswick LMDA, as amended from time to time, as follows:

1. The Canada-New Brunswick LMDA is amended to replace the definition of “EI client”, under section 1.2 of the Canada-New Brunswick LMDA by:
   
   “EI Client” means an unemployed person whom, when requesting assistance under a provincial benefit or measure,
   
   
   1. is an active EI claimant, or,
      
   2. had a benefit period that ended within the previous 60 months, or
      
   3. has a benefit period established under a “provincial plan” as that term is defined in section 76.01 of the Employment Insurance Regulations, or has had that benefit period end within the previous 60 months, and who would have been entitled to receive special benefits under sections 22 or 23 of the EI Act had they not been entitled to receive provincial benefits, as this term is defined in section 76.01 of the Employment Insurance Regulations, under the provincial plan.”
      
2. The Canada-New Brunswick LMDA is amended by adding the following heading and section, after section 13A.1:
   
   “Targeted One Year Increase in Contribution to Costs of New Brunswick Benefits and Measures
   
   13B. Notwithstanding anything in section 13 in fiscal year 2016 to 2017, Canada agrees to increase the maximum contribution payable to New Brunswick under section 13 based on an allocation methodology that takes into account New Brunswick’s share in the national total of the following two variables:
   
   
   1. Number of EI Part I claims with regular benefits paid (50% weight)
      
   2. Number of unemployed workers (50% weight)
   
   Therefore, the maximum contribution payable under section 13 towards the costs of the provincial benefits and measures is increased by an amount not exceeding the amount, rounded to the nearest thousand, determined by the following formula:
   
   C = [(A × 0.5) + (B × 0.5)] × $125 million,
   
   where:
   
   C is the amount of additional funding payable to New Brunswick for fiscal year 2016-2017; and
   
   A is the number of EI Part I claims with regular benefits paid in New Brunswick, divided by the number of EI Part I claims with regular benefits paid in Canada, both in 2014 to 15, as per Annex 2.4 of the 2014/2015 Employment Insurance Monitoring and Assessment Report; and,
   
   B is the average number of unemployed workers in New Brunswick, divided by the average number of unemployed workers in Canada, both from April 2014 through March 2015, as determined by Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey.”
   
3. As a result of this formula, Canada will pay to New Brunswick an additional amount of $5,083,852 for fiscal year 2016 to 17, towards the cost of provincial benefits and measures. The parties agree that no part of this amending agreement will have an impact on how Canada allocates the current Employment Insurance funding ($1.95 billion per year) when determining the maximum annual amount of contributions paid to New Brunswick, in accordance with section 13 of the Canada-New Brunswick LMDA. The parties acknowledge that the current method set out in section 13 of the Canada-New Brunswick LMDA for allocating the current $1.95 billion to the provinces and territories is the allocation method described in the letter dated June 26, 1996, from the Deputy Minister of the Department of Human Resources Development to the Deputy Minister of Advanced Education and Labour.
   
4. The Canada-New Brunswick LMDA is amended by adding the following, after section 14.3:
   
   “14.4 The parties agree that the payment of the additional amount of funding determined under section 13B for fiscal year 2016 to 17, will be made available once this amending agreement has been signed by both parties.”
   
5. The Canada-New Brunswick LMDA is amended by adding the following, after section 7.5:
   
   “7.6 The parties agree that results measurement and reporting related to the additional amount of funding provided under section 13B for fiscal year 2016 to 2017, will be consistent with the process described in Annex 5.”
   
6. In all other respects, the Canada-New Brunswick LMDA shall remain unchanged.
   
7. This amending agreement shall be read together with the Canada-New Brunswick LMDA as amended from time to time and takes effect as if its provisions were part of the Canada-New Brunswick LMDA.
   
8. This amending agreement comes into force once it has been signed by both parties.

Signed on behalf of Canada in Gatineau this 13 day of January, 2017.

Signed on behalf of New Brunswick in Fredericton this 24 day of March, 2017.