Agreement to amend the Canada – Manitoba Labour Market Development Agreement

Preamble

Whereas Canada and Manitoba entered into the Canada-Manitoba Labour Market Development Agreement (“Canada-Manitoba LMDA”) on April 17, 1997;

Whereas the Canada-Manitoba LMDA was amended on April 11, 2001 and May 8 2009;

Whereas in Budget 2016, Canada announced a one-time additional investment of $125 million in 2016-2017 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-Manitoba LMDA to reflect this one-time Increase to the federal contribution toward the cost of Manitoba Benefits and Measures for fiscal year 2016-2017:

Whereas Manitoba also wishes to amend the Canada-Manitoba LMDA to expand the definition of “insured participant” in the Canada-Manitoba LMDA to reflect the definition in section 58 of the Employment Insurance Act, S.C.1996, c.23, which was amended by S.C.2016, c.7, s. 216, effective July 3, 2016.

Now therefore, Canada and Manitoba agree as follows:

The Canada-Manitoba LMDA is amended to replace the definition of "El client", under section 1.2 of the Canada-Manitoba LMDA by:

1. The Canada-Manitoba LMDA is amended by, in the definition of “insured participant” in section 1.2 of the Canada-Manitoba LMDA: in paragraph b), deleting “36” and substituting “60”, and deleting paragraph c) and substituting the following paragraph:

   “c) has a benefit period established under a “provincial plan” as defined in section 76.01 of the Employment Insurance Regulations, SOR/96-332 or has had that benefit period end within the previous 60 months, and who would have been entitled to receive special benefits under section 22 or 23 of the Employment Insurance Act had they not been entitled to receive “provincial benefits” as defined in section 76.01 of the Employment Insurance Regulations, under the provincial plan.”

2. The Canada-Manitoba LMDA is further amended by adding the following section after section 13A:

   “13B Notwithstanding anything in section 13, in fiscal year 2016-2017, Canada agrees to increase the maximum contribution payable to Manitoba under section 13 based on the following allocation methodology that takes into account Manitoba’s share in the national total of the following two variables:

   1. Number of Employment Insurance 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 provincial 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 Manitoba for fiscal year 2016-2017; and

   A is the number of Employment Insurance Part I claims with regular benefits paid in Manitoba, divided by the number of Employment Insurance Part I claims with regular benefits paid in Canada, both in 2014 2015, 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 Manitoba, 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.

   As a result of this formula, Canada will pay to Manitoba an additional amount of $3,442,491 for fiscal year 2016-2017 towards the cost of Manitoba’s provincial benefits and provincial measures.”

3. The Canada-Manitoba LMDA is further amended by adding the following section after section 14.3:

   “14.4 Canada and Manitoba agree that the payment of the additional amount of funding determined under section 13B for fiscal year 2016-2017 will be made available once this amending agreement has been signed by both Canada and Manitoba.”

4. The Canada-Manitoba LMDA is further amended by adding the following section after section 7.5:

   “7.6 Canada and Manitoba agree that results measurement and reporting related to the additional amount of funding provided under section 13B for fiscal year 2016 2017 will be consistent with the process described in Annex 4.”

5. This amending agreement shall be read together with the Canada-Manitoba LMDA as amended from time to time and takes effect as if its provisions were contained in the Canada-Manitoba LMDA.
6. Except to the extent that the provisions of the Canada-Manitoba LMDA are amended by this amending agreement, the Canada-Manitoba LMDA shall remain the same and in full force and effect. Without limiting the foregoing sentence, Canada and Manitoba agree that nothing in this amending agreement will affect the way in which Canada allocates the current $1.95 billion per year of Employment Insurance funding when determining the maximum annual amount of contributions payable to Manitoba pursuant to section 13 of the Canada-Manitoba LMDA. Canada and Manitoba acknowledge that the current method referred to in section 13 for allocating the $1.95 billion to the provinces and territories continues to be the allocation method set out in the letter dated June 26, 1996, from the Deputy Minister of the Department of Human Resources Development to the Deputy Minister of Training and Advanced Education, attached as Annex 7 of the Canada-Manitoba LMDA.
7. This amending agreement comes into force once it has been signed by both Canada and Manitoba.

Signed on behalf of Canada in Gatineau this 21^st day of December, 2016.

Signed on behalf of Manitoba in Winnipeg this 29^th day of November, 2016.