Agreement to amend the Canada – British Columbia Labour Market Development Agreement

Preamble

Whereas the parties entered the Canada-British Columbia Labour Market Development Agreement (“the BC LMDA”) on February 20, 2008;

Whereas the BC LMDA was amended on April 9, 2009 and September 1, 2015;

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 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 BC LMDA to reflect this one-time increase to the federal contribution toward the cost of BC Benefits and Measures for fiscal year 2016-2017;

Whereas the definition of “insured participant” in section 58 of the Employment Insurance Act (“EI Act”) was amended effective July 3, 2016 and British Columbia has expressed the desire to expand the definition of “EI Client” in the BC LMDA applicable to the BC Benefits and Measures to reflect the current definition of “insured participant” in the EI Act; and

Whereas the parties have agreed to further amend the BC LMDA.

Therefore, the parties agree as follows:

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

   “EI Client” means an unemployed person who, when requesting assistance under a BC Benefit or 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. To amend the BC LMDA by adding after section 8.1 (c):

   “8.2 The parties agree that results measurement and reporting respecting the increase in the maximum contribution payable to British Columbia under section 14B for fiscal year 2016-2017 will be consistent with the process described in Annex 4.”

3. To amend the BC LMDA by adding after section 14A.1:

   “ARTICLE 14B Targeted One-Year Increase in Contribution to Costs of BC Benefits and Measures

   14B.1 Notwithstanding anything in Article 14, in fiscal year 2016-17, Canada agrees to increase the maximum contribution payable to British Columbia under Article 14 based on an allocation methodology that takes into account British Columbia’s share in the national total of the following variables:

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

   14B.2 The maximum contribution payable under Article 14 towards the Costs of the BC Benefits and Measures in fiscal year 2016-17 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 British Columbia for fiscal year 2016-2017;

   A is the number of EI Part I claims with regular benefits paid, that were established in British Columbia, divided by the number of EI 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 British Columbia, 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 maximum contribution payable by Canada to British Columbia under Article 14 of the BC LMDA towards the Costs of the BC Benefits and Measures for fiscal year 2016-17, which, in accordance with section 14.5 of the BC LMDA, is specified in the Annual Annex for fiscal year 2016-17, is increased by $13,374,260 to $292,345,293


5. This amending agreement will not impact the allocation methodology established by Canada for allocating among provinces and territories the funding approved each year by Canada’s Treasury Board for expenditures under Part II of the EI Act (currently $1.95 billion per year), which, the parties acknowledge, 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 Education, Skills and Training.



6. To amend the BC LMDA by adding after section 16.2:

   “16.3 The parties agree that the payment of the additional contribution to British Columbia towards the Costs of the BC Benefits and Measures determined under section 14B for fiscal year 2016-2017, will be made available once this amending agreement has been signed by both parties.”

7. In all other respects, the BC LMDA shall remain unchanged.


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


9. This amending agreement will be effective when it is signed by both parties.

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

Signed on behalf of British Columbia at Victoria on this 15^th day of November, 2016.