Agreement to amend the Canada-Nunavut Labour Market Development Agreement

Preamble

Whereas the parties concluded the Canada-Nunavut Labour Market Development Agreement ("Canada-Nunavut LMDA") on May 11, 2000;

Whereas the Canada-Nunavut LMDA was amended on May 4, 2004, July 16, 2009 and November 21, 2014;

Whereas in Budget 2016, the Government of Canada announced that it would provide an additional $125 million in 2016-2017 to be allocated between the provinces and territories under the Labour Market Development Agreements 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-Nunavut LMDA to reflect this one-time Increase to the federal contribution toward the cost of Nunavut Benefits and Measures for fiscal year 2016-2017:

Whereas the definition of "Insured participant in section 58 of the Employment Insurance Act ("El Act) was amended effective July 3, 2016 and Nunavut has expressed the desire to expand the definition of "El client" in the Canada-Nunavut LMDA applicable to the Nunavut benefits and measures to reflect the definition In the El Act;

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

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

   "EI Client" means an unemployed person whom, when requesting assistance under a Nunavut benefit or measure,

   1. is an active El claim an, 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 El 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-Nunavut LMDA is amended by adding the following heading and section after section 11A:

   "Targeted One-Year Increase in Contribution to Costs of Nunavut Benefits and Measures,

   11B. Notwithstanding anything in section 11, in fiscal year 2016-2017, Canada agrees to increase the maximum contribution payable to Nunavut under section 11 based on an allocation methodology that takes into account Nunavut's share in the national total of the following two variables:

   1. Number of El Part I claims with regular benefits paid (50% weight)
   2. Number of unemployed workers (50% weight)
   
   

   Therefore, the maximum contribution payable under section 11 towards the costs of the Nunavut benefits and measures is increased by an amount not exceeding the amount, rounded to the nearest thousand, determined by the following formula:

   C =[(A x 0.5)+(B x 0.5)] x $125 million where:

   C is the amount of additional funding payable to Nunavut for fiscal year 2016- 2017: and

   A is the number of El Part I claims with regular benefits paid in Nunavut, divided by the number of El Part I claims with regular benefits paid in Canada, both in 2014-15, 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 Nunavut, 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 Nunavut an additional amount of $118,858 for fiscal year 2016-2017 towards the costs of Nunavut's 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 Nunavut, in accordance with section 11 of the Canada-Nunavut LMDA. The parties acknowledge that the current method set out in section 11 of the Canada-Nunavut 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 provinces and territories which was extended to Nunavut after it became a territory on April 1, 1999 leading to the signature of the LMDA on May 11, 2000.



4. The Canada-Nunavut LMDA is amended by adding the following, after section 12.2:

   "12.3 The parties agree that the payment of the additional amount of funding determined under section 11B for fiscal year 2016-2017 will be made available once this amending agreement has been signed by both parties."

5. The Canada-Nunavut LMDA is amended by adding the following, after section 6.6:

   "6.7 The parties agree that results measurement and reporting related to the additional amount of funding provided under section 118 for fiscal year 2016-2017, will be consistent with the process described in Annex 3."

6. In all other respects, the Canada-Nunavut LMDA shall remain unchanged.


7. This amending agreement shall be read together with the Canada-Nunavut LMDA as amended from time to time and takes effect as if its provisions were part of the Canada-Nunavut LMDA.


8. This amending agreement comes into force once it has been signed by both parties.

Signed on behalf of Canada in ___________ this ___ day of ___________, 2016.

_______________________
MaryAnn Mihychuk
Minister of Labour styled as the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour

_________________________
Louise Levian
Chairperson, Canada Employment Insurance Commission

Signed on behalf of Nunavut in Iqaluit, Nunavut this 13 day of September, 2016.

_______________________
Johnny Mike
Minister of Family Services

_________________________
Witness