Agreement to amend the Canada – Prince Edward Island 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 Prince Edward Island, hereinafter referred to as "Prince Edward Island", represented by the Minister of Workforce and Advanced Learning

Hereinafter referred to as "the parties"

Preamble

Whereas the parties concluded the Canada-Prince Edward Island Labour Market Development Agreement (“Canada-Prince Edward Island LMDA”) on September 5, 2008;

Whereas the Canada-Prince Edward Island LMDA was amended on May 22, 2009;

Whereas in Budget 2016, the Government of Canada announced that it would provide an additional $125 million in Fiscal Year 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-Prince Edward Island LMDA to reflect this one-time increase to the federal contribution toward the cost of 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 Prince Edward Island has expressed the desire to expand the definition of “EI client” in the Canada-Prince Edward Island LMDA applicable to the benefits and measures to reflect the definition in the EI Act;

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

To amend the BC LMDA by replacing the definition of “EI Client” in section 1.2 with:

  1. The Canada-Prince Edward Island LMDA is amended to replace the definition of “EI Client”, under section 1.2 of the Canada-Prince Edward Island LMDA with:

    “EI Client” means an unemployed person whom, when requesting assistance under a Prince Edward Island Benefit or Prince Edward Island 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-Prince Edward Island LMDA is amended by adding the following, after section 8.1

    “8.2 The parties agree that results measurement and reporting related to the additional amount of funding provided under section 14B for Fiscal Year 2016 to 2017, will be consistent with the process described in Annex 4.”

  3. The Canada–Prince Edward Island LMDA is amended by adding the following heading and sections after section 14A:

    “Targeted One-Year Increase in Contribution to Costs of PEI Benefits and Measures

    14B. Notwithstanding anything in section 14 in Fiscal Year 2016/17, Canada agrees to increase the maximum contribution payable to Prince Edward Island under section 14 based on an allocation methodology that takes into account Prince Edward Island’s respective 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 14 towards the costs of the PEI 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 Prince Edward Island for Fiscal Year 2016 to 2017; and

    A is the number of EI Part I claims with regular benefits paid in Prince Edward Island, divided by the number of EI Part I claims with regular benefits paid in Canada, both in Fiscal Year 2014 to 2015, in accordance with Annex 2.4 of the Fiscal Year 2014 to 2015 Employment Insurance Monitoring and Assessment Report; and,

    B is the average number of unemployed workers in Prince Edward Island, 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.”

  4. The Canada-Prince Edward Island LMDA is amended by adding the following, after section 16.2:

    “16.3 The parties agree that the payment of the additional amount of funding determined under section 14B for Fiscal Year 2016 to 2017, will be made available on a date to be agreed to in writing by both parties.”

  5. In all other respects, the Canada-Prince Edward Island LMDA shall remain unchanged.
  6. As a result of the addition of section 14B to the Canada-Prince Edward Island LMDA, in accordance with section 2 of this Amending Agreement, it is hereby agreed that Canada will pay to Prince Edward Island an additional amount of $1,178,874 for Fiscal Year 2016 to 2017, towards the costs of PEI Benefits and Measures, and make this funding available on a date to be agreed to in writing by both parties. 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 Prince Edward Island, in accordance with section 14 of the Canada-Prince Edward Island LMDA. The parties acknowledge that the current method set out in section 14 of the Canada-Prince Edward Island 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 Economic Development and Tourism.
  7. This amending agreement shall be read together with the Canada-Prince Edward Island LMDA as amended from time to time and takes effect as if its provisions were part of the Canada-Prince Edward Island LMDA.
  8. This amending agreement comes into force once it has been signed by both parties.

Signed on behalf of Canada at Gatineau on this 15th day of December, 2016.

______________
The Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos
Minister of Employment and Social Development styled as the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development

______________
Louise Levian
Chairperson, Canada Employment Insurance Commission

Signed on behalf of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown this 15th day of November, 2016.

______________
Richard Brown
Minister of Workforce and Advanced Learning

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