Agreement to amend the Canada – Québec Labour Market Development Agreement

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 Québec, hereinafter referred to as "Québec", represented by the Minister of l’Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale and the Ministre responsible des Relations canadiennes et de la Francophonie canadienne.

Hereinafter referred to as "the parties"

Preamble

Whereas the parties concluded the Canada-Québec Labour Market Agreement in Principle (hereinafter “the Agreement”) on April 21,1997, pursuant to which Canada and Québec agreed on the provisions for implementing active employment measures in Québec funded from the Employment Insurance Operating Account;

Whereas the parties concluded the Canada-Quebec Labour Market Implementation Agreement (hereinafter “the Implementation Agreement”) on November 28, 1997 in order to implement the Canada-Québec Labour Market Agreement in Principle;

Whereas the Agreement was modified on July 20, 2007, April 30, 2009, and August 25, 2014;

Whereas in Budget 2016, the Government of Canada announced that it would provide an additional $125 million in fiscal year 2016-2017 to be allocated between the provinces and territories under Labour Market Development Agreements;

Whereas Québec, with its part of this additional funding, will continue to implement public employment services and measures to help ensure in particular that workers develop the skills they need to find employment;

Whereas to access this additional funding, the parties agree to amend the Agreement to reflect this one-time increase to the federal contribution toward the costs incurred by active employment measures in fiscal year 2016 to 2017;

Whereas the parties agree to amend the definition of “Employment Insurance participant” in the Agreement;

Therefore, the parties agree to amend the Agreement, as amended from time to time, as follows:

  1. Section 3.4 of the Agreement is replaced by the following :

    “3.4 Employment Insurance participant means:
    Both in this clause and this agreement, the term ‘Employment Insurance participant’ means a person insured under Employment Insurance who requests assistance under employment benefits, and when requesting the assistance, is an unemployed person who, if applicable:

    1. has had an Employment Insurance benefit period that was established or that ended within the previous 60 months; or
    2. 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 Act had they not been entitled to receive provincial benefits, as this term is defined in section 76.01 of the Employment Insurance Regulations.”
  2. The Agreement is amended by adding the following after section 7B:

    “Targeted One-Year Increase in Contribution to Costs of Québec’s Active Employment Measures

    7C. Notwithstanding anything in section 7, in fiscal year 2016 to 2017, Canada agrees to increase the maximum contribution payable under section 7 based on an allocation methodology that takes into account Québec’s 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 7 in fiscal year 2016 to 2017 towards the costs of Québec’s active employment measures is increased by an amount not exceeding the amount, rounded to the nearest thousand, calculated using the following formula:

    C = [(A × 0.5) + (B × 0.5)] × $125 million,

    where:

    C is the amount of additional contribution payable to Québec in fiscal year 2016-2017;

    A is the number of EI Part I claims with regular benefits paid in Québec, 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 Québec, 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.

    As a result of this allocation formula, Québec will receive an additional amount of $35,598,260 for fiscal year 2016 to 2017, which will be paid once this amending agreement has been signed by both parties.”
  3. 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 Québec, in accordance with section 7.1 of the Canada-Québec Labour Market Agreement in Principle of April 21,1997. The parties acknowledge that the current method set out in section 7.1 of the Canada-Québec Labour Market Agreement in Principle 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 Secrétaire général associé aux Affaires intergouvernmentales canadiennes of Québec.
    In all other respects, the Agreement remains unchanged.
  4. This amending agreement shall be read with the Agreement and Implementation Agreement, as amended from time to time, and takes effect as if its provisions were part of the Agreement.
  5. This amending agreement comes into force once it has been signed by both parties.

Signed on behalf of Canada in Gatineau this 21st 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 Québec this 17th day of November, 2016.

________________________
François Blais
Minister of l’Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale

________________________
Jean-Marc Fournier
Ministre responsable des Relations canadiennes et de la Francophonie canadienne

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