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Employment Benefits and Support Measures (EBSM) is undertaken in partnership with the Nova Scotia government under the Labour Market Development Agreement (LMDA). The main objective of the Labour Market Development Agreement is "to provide a framework for Canada and Nova Scotia to work jointly to find opportunities through strategic partnerships to benefit Nova Scotians."³ This chapter reviews the partnership between the province and the federal government.

5.1 LMDA Background

The Canada/Nova Scotia Agreement on a Framework for Strategic Partnerships was signed on April 24, 1997 to undertake joint activities in the area of labour market programs and services in Nova Scotia. EBSM predated this LMDA, having been inaugurated in July of 1996.

Under this agreement, Nova Scotia has adopted a unique cooperative and collaborative arrangement in its dealings with the federal government and labour market programming. While agreeing to work closely together and cooperate in identifying areas of common interest, Canada and Nova Scotia continue to maintain separate responsibility for the delivery of their own labour market programs and services within the existing authorities legislated by their governments.

Areas of joint cooperation and collaboration enabled by the Agreement include, but are not restricted to:

• Joint Planning and Priority Setting;
• Program Design and Delivery;
• Labour Market Partnerships;
• Information Products;
• Community Capacity Building.

The Canada/Nova Scotia approach is in contrast to other provinces, which accepted the full devolution of Employment Insurance (EI) funded programs and services (New Brunswick, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Quebec and Manitoba), or those which agreed to co-manage employment benefits and measures (Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland).

To comprehend the Canada/Nova Scotia Agreement, it must be understood that it is neither a prescriptive nor monied agreement (unlike the previous training Agreements in place between the federal and provincial government, or the earlier Social Assistance Recipient Agreement). Instead, the Agreement provides a strategic framework through which the two governments jointly identify priorities in which there is mutual advantage for collaboration. The emphasis in Nova Scotia is on serving clients. The Canada/Nova Scotia Agreement represents, in the words of one respondent, "a continuous trust building exercise, a whole new way of doing business." It gives the parties to the Agreement more ability to negotiate on an ongoing basis.

The Canada/Nova Scotia Agreement has been credited by some senior officials for bringing the province and the federal government back together after a period of drifting apart. Under the earlier SAR Agreement, for example, some positive partnerships had been forged between Community Services and Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC) staff. The formalized liaison committees ceased with the ending of the agreement, although informal arrangements continued in some parts of the province. Since the implementation of the Canada/Nova Scotia Agreement these relationships have been re-established across the province.

5.2 Committee Structure

A hierarchy of committees governs the partnership. The committees determine sharing of costs, mandate, mutual responsibilities and accountability for results. The committee structure is headed by the Joint Management Committee. Co-chaired by the HRDC Nova Scotia Region Director General, and the Senior Advisor with the Labour Market Development Secretariat for the Province, this committee is mandated to collaborate and coordinate efforts to improve federal and provincial labour market programs and services for the benefit of Nova Scotians. Deputies from the Nova Scotia Departments of Community Services, Education and Culture, and Economic Development and Tourism sit on this committee together with their federal colleagues from Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation, and Industry Canada.

Under this committee is the Committee of Senior Officials, co-chaired by the Senior Advisor of the Labour Market Development Secretariat and the HRDC Associate Director General. A large committee (18 members or more), its make-up includes representatives from each department attached to the Agreement. On the federal side, members are drawn from field directors and the regional office; head office staff attend from the Province. In addition, co-chairs from the various sub-committees, are invited to attend the Committee of Senior Officials' meetings. The mandate of the Committee of Senior Officials has been to:

• recommend a joint planning process that will identify the needs and opportunities in the Nova Scotia labour market;
• identify how programs and services (covered by the Agreement) of both governments can effectively work together to address these issues; and
• include accountability and evaluation requirements as part of the planning process.

Specific roles and responsibilities have been to:

• prepare a yearly plan for implementation of the Agreement, including priorities related to program design and delivery, labour market partnerships, information products, community building, research, information sharing, human resources, communications and technology;
• provide ongoing review and analysis of activity related to the yearly plan;
• ensure suitable and timely communication with staff and ensure adequate training and development opportunities;
• review expenditures in relation to budgets to highlight areas of concerns and recommend changes; and
• review the results of evaluations with a view to improving programs and service delivery.

At the base are 12 sub-committees. Membership was drawn from provincial head office and field office staff, and from regional and local Human Resources Centres of Canada (HRCC) staff on the federal side. The function of most of the subcommittees is clear from its name: Co-location (co-location of HRDC, Community Services, Education and Culture and allied Non-Government Organizations); Community Capacity Building; the Glace Bay Project (joint service delivery); Labour Market Information Products; Literacy; Reach-back Client; Skills, Loans and Grants; Support to Job Creation; Youth⁴; Evaluation; and Communications.

The theory of the committee structure is as follows: By bringing senior officials from the federal and provincial governments to a common table and inviting regional and field staff to participate in joint discussions, differences which in the past may have prevented joint provincial federal cooperation, would be replaced by an understanding of what each jurisdiction has in common.⁵

5.3 Examples of Specific Activities of Subcommittees

5.3.1 Targeted Wage Subsidies/Self-Employment Assistance (TWS)/(SEA) Sub-Committee

One of the first concrete activities of the Canada-Nova Scotia Agreement focused on the development of common approaches and guiding principles in the application of the Targeted Wage Subsidies and Self-Employment program by HRDC and Community Services staff in their work with clients. These approaches and principles were summarized in a manual, and training was provided to all federal and provincial employment staff. This activity was overseen by the TWS/SEA sub-committee, and resulted in a harmonization program launched on April 1, 1998.

One of the significant principles includes the following: That the local office and the individual staff person will hold the decision-making power regarding the appropriateness of using a harmonized program option with a client. Since the harmonization program, provincial staff in some regions of the province have reported a significant shift from their usual centralized decision-making model to local decision-making. Regional staff in the Halifax region, for example, report direct responsibility for most decisions respecting client interventions. This is in sharp contrast to the pre-agreement days when decision-making required head office approval.

5.3.2 Skills, Loans and Grants Sub-Committee (SLG)

The work of the SLG Sub-committee enabled federal and provincial players to understand each others' issues and concerns and, in the opinion of the co-chairs, "has enabled a good deal for Nova Scotians, one of which we can be proud."

That said, the committee structure was not easy. It entailed many hours of discussion and many repeat visits to the drawing board. Nova Scotia also piloted the Skills, Loans and Grants program in two locations (the only province to implement such a pilot) in an effort to jointly work out the many details and issues that arise in a newly launched and cross jurisdictional program.

In the end, the commitment by both jurisdictions to stick with the discussions has resulted in an agreement that includes the HRDC principle of client-centered programming, while guaranteeing the provincial Community College system continued funding for training costs. The agreed-upon model, re-named the Skill Development Employment Benefit, has replaced the earlier proposed loan component with a federal guarantee to the Province to cover the difference in actual cost of training and the cost of tuition. Clients will be expected to contribute towards their training based on their ability.

The negotiations of the committee have also resulted in the addition of enhanced service components including an introductory one-week course aimed at building/refreshing study skills, and use of the Prior Learning Assessment services to a job placement service upon graduation. In the opinion of senior officials, these incremental components, were only possible because of the goodwill generated through the framework of the Agreement.

5.3.3 Co-Location Sub-Committee

The emphasis of the co-location committee, to date, has been on identifying sites throughout the province appropriate for bringing HRDC staff together with Community Services staff under one roof. Co-location has occurred in a number of sites, and a report has been completed on the impacts of co-location in two pilot sites.

The existence of the committee has enabled issues arising from the co-locations to be discussed at a common table so that lessons learned can be shared and applied to future co-locations. The committee is increasingly broadening its role from one of planning for co-location, to providing active support to co-locations in the field.

5.4 Issues Identified by Key Informants

During the interviews related to the partnership, several concerns were raised by informants:

• the cumbersome committee structure;
• committee members being on multiple committees; and
• communications problems.

With so many committees and subcommittees, communication is vital to the success of the partnership structure. Unfortunately, as one might predict with the cumbersome committee structure, communication has often been problematic. There was broad concurrence that communication needs to improve to support the Agreement. Moreover, as some informants stated, there hasn't been a lot of output from the committees.

Committee co-chairs had questioned the sheer number of committees initially established under the Agreement; others had indicated that there was not always as much commonality between the jurisdictions as initially thought; still others had questioned the efficiency of the meeting schedule. Many interviewees maintained that LMDA committee duties were given to them without any relief from other duties. Related to this is overlap in committee duties and membership: the committees are required to meet monthly and many people are on several committees.

Leadership has recognized the need to streamline the committee structure and is focusing its efforts on a smaller number of priorities. It has also recognized the need to shift its focus from consultation at the senior levels, to that of support for the growing number of partnerships in place and in development at the regional and local levels. Accordingly, the Agreement is undergoing a period of transition.

A few informants (including some provincial staff) thought the Province had been somewhat disinterested in the Agreement. Sparse attendance at some meetings was offered as evidence of this. Another reason was offered by one provincial informant who said: "It hasn't been a provincial priority to reduce the amount of time a person has been on EI." If the province views the Labour Market Agreement as a vehicle to reduce reliance on EI, it is possible some officials view it as a threat to the social assistance budget.

Some interviewees indicated that little has changed in terms of service delivery at the field level since the signing of the Agreement. In the Halifax area, for example, Community Services was said to be delivering some aspects of EBSM, but some front-line workers claimed there was little communication between themselves and the provincial workers. Even where federal and provincial offices have been co-located, there is some evidence that not much has changed. "Even in those offices where co-location exists, the two departments still deliver the services in isolation from one another."

5.5 Conclusion

Although the LMDA partnership is experiencing some challenges, this is to be expected at the early stages of any partnership. The LMDA management committee is addressing most of the concerns uncovered in the evaluation. For example, there is a proposal to completely overhaul the cumbersome committee structure to not only streamline the administration of the Agreement but also to involve local staff more directly in LMDA activity. Local committees reflecting each of the priority areas agreed to will be established in each region to directly ensure and oversee work on initiatives.

A major strength of the Canada-Nova Scotia Agreement is its capacity to evolve to overcome identified weaknesses and to meet unforeseen contingencies. As the Agreement continues to evolve, it is hoped that the work carried out under the Agreement will no longer be seen as an add-on but rather as an integral part of staffs' ongoing responsibilities.

Footnotes

3	Canada-Nova Scotia Agreement on a Framework for Strategic Partnerships.
4	The Youth Committee was disbanded with the recent signing of Youth Protocol with the province.
5	For example, HRDC has local decision-making authority (especially around the spending of dollars) while the Province has had to refer all decisions, especially those around money, to head office in Halifax.