Summary: Evaluation of the Canada-Manitoba Labour Market Development Agreement

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Program objectives

The Canada-Manitoba Labour Market Development Agreement (LMDA) is a bilateral agreement between Canada and Manitoba for the design and delivery of Employment Benefits and Support Measures (EBSMs). The objective of EBSMs is to assist individuals to prepare for, obtain or keep employment.

The following benefits and measures are examined in the evaluation.

Skills Development helps participants obtain employment skills by giving them financial assistance to attend classroom training.

Wage Subsidy helps participants obtain on-the-job work experience by providing employers with a wage subsidy.

Self-Employment provides financial assistance and business planning advice to participants to help them start their own business.

Employment PartnershipsFootnote 1 provide participants with opportunities to gain work experience that will lead to ongoing employment. Employment opportunities are provided by projects that contribute to developing the community and the local economy.

Employment Assistance Services help participants to prepare for, obtain and maintain employment. Services can include counselling, job search skills, job placement services, provision of labour market information and case management.

Labour Market Partnerships aim to support an industry-led approach to human resource development tailored to meet the labour market needs of industry sectors.

Research and Innovation supports initiatives that seek to identify better ways of helping people prepare for, return to, or keep employment, and be productive participants in the labour force.

The LMDA investment

In fiscal year 2020 to 2021, Canada transferred nearly $61.7 million to Manitoba.

Evaluation objectives

Building on the success of previous LMDA evaluation cycles, the aim of this evaluation is to fill in knowledge gaps about the effectiveness, efficiency, as well as design and delivery of EBSMs in Manitoba.

Evaluation methodology

The findings in this report are drawn from 8 separate evaluation studies that use a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods, including:

  • incremental impact analysis for participants who began an intervention between 2010 and 2012
  • outcome analysis
  • cost-benefit analysis (including savings to health care)
  • key informant interviews with 23 Manitoba program managers and service providers 
  • provincial questionnaires
  • survey of 112 Self-Employment participants in Manitoba
  • document and literature reviews

Key findings

Incremental impacts were produced for 2 programs: Skills Development and Employment Assistance services. Participation in the 2 programs improved labour market attachment and reduced dependence on government income supports compared to similar non-participants.

A subgroup analyses shows that with some exceptions, Skills Development and Employment Assistance Services improved the labour market attachment and reduced the dependence on income support for most subgroups of participants.

A regional analysis of incremental impacts for Skills Development found that participants increased their labour market attachment and reduced their dependence on government income support both in Winnipeg and outside of Winnipeg.

Over time, the benefits accrued by participants and the government exceeded the initial cost of investment in Skills Development and Employment Assistance Services. For example, 10 years after participation in Skills Development between $6.38 and $7.31 is generated for each dollar invested in the program.

The evaluation also found that:

  • Manitoba used the Self-Employment program to assist participants in creating employment for themselves by providing them with a range of services including:
    • assistance with business plan development
    • counselling, coaching and mentoring
    • entrepreneurial training and workshops
  • Manitoba used Employment Partnerships to support projects that enable employers, communities and other organizations to support sustainable employment for clients through employment, skill enhancement, and short-term work experience activities
  • Manitoba used Labour Market Partnerships to support industry-led approaches to human resource development tailored to meet the labour market needs of industry sectors
  • the Research and Innovation support measure was used by Manitoba to:
    • address policy and program issues or research questions related to strategic priorities
    • research and/or design projects that are practical and that identify innovative and better ways of helping individuals prepare for, find and maintain sustainable employment
    • strengthen and promote province-wide or regional labour market development

Recommendations

Recommendation #1: Manitoba is encouraged to share and discuss lessons learned, best practices and challenges associated with the design and delivery of programs and services. Discussions are encouraged with Employment and Social Development Canada at the bilateral or multilateral levels as well as with the service delivery network, if necessary.

Recommendation #2: Manitoba is encouraged to pursue efforts to maintain and strengthen data collection provisions in support of reporting, performance measurement and data-driven evaluations at the national and provincial levels.

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