Agreement to amend the Canada – Northwest Territories 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 the Northwest Territories, hereinafter referred to as "Northwest Territories", represented by the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Hereinafter referred to as "the parties"

Preamble

Whereas the parties concluded the Canada-Northwest Territories Labour Market Development Agreement (“Canada-Northwest Territories LMDA”) on February 27, 1998;

Whereas the Canada-Northwest Territories LMDA was amended on September 30, 1998, June 15, 2000, July 8, 2009 and November 22, 2011;

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-Northwest Territories LMDA to reflect this one-time increase to the federal contribution toward the cost of Territorial 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 the Northwest Territories has expressed the desire to expand the definition of “insured participant” in the Canada-Northwest Territories LMDA applicable to the Territorial Benefits and Measures to reflect the definition in the EI Act;

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

1. The Canada-Northwest Territories LMDA is amended to replace the definition of “insured participant”, under section 1.2 of the Canada-Northwest Territories LMDA by:

   “insured participant” means an unemployed person whom, when requesting assistance under a Territorial 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. The Canada-Northwest Territories LMDA is amended by adding the following heading and section, after section 13A:

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

   13B Notwithstanding anything in section 13 in fiscal year 2016 to 2017, Canada agrees to increase the maximum contribution payable to the Northwest Territories under section 13 based on an allocation methodology that takes into account the Northwest Territories’ 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 13 towards the costs of the Territorial 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 the Northwest Territories for fiscal year 2016 to 2017; and

   A is the number of EI Part I claims with regular benefits paid in the Northwest Territories, divided by the number of EI Part I claims with regular benefits paid in Canada, both in 2014 to 2015, as per Annex 2.4 of the 2014 to 2015 Employment Insurance Monitoring and Assessment Report; and,

   B is the average number of unemployed workers in the Northwest Territories, 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 the Northwest Territories an additional amount of $170,319 for fiscal year 2016 to 2017, towards the cost of Territorial 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 the Northwest Territories, in accordance with section 13 of the Canada-Northwest Territories LMDA. The parties acknowledge that the current method set out in section 13 of the Canada-Northwest Territories 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 Acting Deputy Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

4. The Canada-Northwest Territories LMDA is amended by adding the following, after section 14.3:

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

5. The Canada-Northwest Territories LMDA is amended by adding the following, after section 7.5:

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

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

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

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

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

Signed on behalf of Northwest Territories in Yellowknife this 14^th day of November, 2016.