Agreement to amend the Canada – Saskatchewan Labour Market Development Agreement

Preamble

Whereas the parties concluded the Canada-Saskatchewan Labour Market Development Agreement ("Canada-Saskatchewan LMDA") on February 6, 1998;

Whereas the Canada-Saskatchewan was amended LMDA on March 15, 2001 and May 22, 2009;

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 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-Saskatchewan LMDA to reflect this one-time increase to the federal contribution toward the cost of employment benefits and support 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 Saskatchewan has expressed the desire to expand the definition of "El client" in the Canada-Saskatchewan LMDA applicable to the employment benefits and support measures to reflect the definition in the El Act;

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

1. The Canada-Saskatchewan LMDA is amended to replace the definition of "El client", under section 2.1 of the Canada-Saskatchewan LMDA by:

   "El Client" means an unemployed person whom, when requesting assistance under an employment benefit or support 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-Saskatchewan LMDA is amended by adding the following section, after section 13A.1:

   "138 Notwithstanding anything in section 13 in fiscal year 2016-2017, Canada agrees to increase the maximum contribution payable to Saskatchewan under section 13 based on an allocation methodology that takes into account Saskatchewan'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 13 towards the costs of the employment benefits and support 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 Saskatchewan for fiscal year 2016-2017; and

   A is the number of El Part I claims with regular benefits paid in Saskatchewan, 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 Saskatchewan, 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 Saskatchewan an additional amount of $2,593,466 for fiscal year 2016-2017, towards the cost of employment benefits and support 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 Saskatchewan, in accordance with section 13 of the Canada­ Saskatchewan LMDA. The parties acknowledge that the current method set out in section 13 of the Canada-Saskatchewan 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 Post-Secondary Education and Skills Training.



4. The Canada-Saskatchewan LMDA is amended by adding the following, after section 14:

   "14.3 The parties agree that the payment of the additional amount of funding determined under section 138 will be made available once this amending agreement has been signed by both parties."

5. The Canada- Saskatchewan LMDA is amended by the addition of the following, after section 8:

   "8.6 The parties agree that results measurement and reporting related to the additional amount of funding provided under section 138 for fiscal year 2016-2017, will be consistent with the process described in Annex 4."

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


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


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

Signed on behalf of Canada in Quebec city this 4^th day of November, 2016.
_______________________
The Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos
Minister of Employment and Social Development styled as the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development

_________________________
Louise Levonian
Chairperson, Canada Employment Insurance Commission

Signed on behalf of Saskatchewan in Regina this 23^rd day of November, 2016.

_______________________
The Honourable Jeremy Harrison
Minister of the Economy