Strengthening Canada’s Public Employment Service Post-Devolution

Starting in 1996, responsibility for managing Canada’s public employment service began to be devolved from the Government of Canada to provinces, territories and Aboriginal organizations. The variety of different labour market transfer agreements has created a complex and fragmented system. This paper proposes ways that Canada’s now largely decentralized public employment service could be strengthened through better governance.  Proposals include:

• develop a pan-Canadian multilateral labour market framework agreement
• consolidate the four federal-provincial agreements into one agreement
• devolve responsibility for federal youth and disability programming
• reaffirm the federal stewardship and coordination roles
• restore the National Aboriginal Labour Market Management Board
• develop a National Labour Market Partners’ Council
• include comparative research in the mandate of the Labour Market Information Council.

ISBN – 1-55382-677-9